The Edges of Things
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At the Mercy of my Own Forgetting

Picture
​

At the Mercy of my Own Forgetting
Published in the May 2019 issue of The Write Launch Literary Magazine
poetry

Declares the forgetting man
under the florescent lights
his face shadowless
in a shadowed world

that he knows where it is
once and for all.
His Mountain Dew overflows
all down the cupboards below

the soda station
a fountain of oblivious distress.
He lays ghosts at his feet
who mumble and beg for permanent rest.

“Don’t forget a tasty treat” he expels
and he waves toward me and
a rack of Funyuns
his Butterfly tattooed arm

branding me a forgetter too.
I am stunned that I have neglected to
anticipate Butterflies all this time and
that her voice is more than a bunch

of tiny oxide particles
embedded on a
long strand
of polyester.

“Don’t shift things about” the forgetting man insists
but I did this very thing last year when we moved
and until this Butterfly moment
I thought that I had vanished her forever.

Her Wisconsin ‘yahs”, her shit the bed comments,
her voice.
Declares the forgetting man
under the florescent lights

his face shadowless in a shadowed world
that he knows where it is
once and for all.
More Mountain Dew surrenders itself

at his feet in pools of ice.
I abandon his isle.
The ghosts he lays at his feet
scream at me,

“Don’t forget a tasty snack!”
A smile claims my lips
as he whoops
his warning, “Don’t shift things about!”

I know I’ll find
her tucked away
in the Butterfly box at the back
of my nightstand drawer wedged next

to the dream in which
she insisted that I would be okay
as long as I don’t search
for things unbearably gone

or waste away at the mercy
of my own forgetting.

​Written during an incident at the Circle K in which I remembered where I had stored the cassette tape of me interviewing my Nana for a family history project just weeks before she died in a car accident.
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  • Something You Don't Know Yet - Chapbook with ShabdAaweg Press
  • Buy Chapbook Something You Don't Know Yet at ShabdAaweg Press
  • About
  • Contact
  • Mouthful of Storm- Wild Roof Journal/lyrical prose
  • This Blood Is Beautiful-Wishbone Words/CNF
  • No One Writes About Agnes-The Red Fez Literary Magazine/CNF
  • Mine-Hearth & Coffin/CNF
  • The Elephants Only I Can See-TMP Magazine, Lyrical Prose
  • Dust-Miniskirt Magazine/CNF
  • The Woman With Mice-Misery Tourism/Fiction
  • How to Wake Up Feeling Dangerous-Anti Heroin Chic Magazine/Poetry
  • Bone World-Prometheus Dreaming/lyrical prose
  • I Know a Wall When I See One - Tangled Locks Journal/CNF
  • Animal Instinct- Pangyrus Literary Magazine/CNF
  • Tick-HerStry/CNF
  • Handler-Anti-Heroine Chic Magazine/CNF
  • When the East Wind Comes-Months to Years Literary Journal/CNF
  • The Man with the Round Tomatoes in the Square Baskets-Prometheus Dreaming/CNF
  • Pandemically Yours
  • Chariotless God-Kalopsia Literary Journal/CNF
  • The Dead Are Holding Something Back-Prometheus Dreaming/CNF
  • The Carving Tree-Write Launch Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Along Third Street-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Me Going Gone-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetry
  • For Grief and For Ironing-The Feminine Collective/lyrical prose
  • When the New People Came-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • At the Mercy of my Own Forgetting-Write Launch Literary Magazine/poetry
  • The Rent I Pay-Write Launch Literary Magazine/poetry
  • By the Dead Purple Lady-The Write Launch Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Unbearably Gone-The Write Launch Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Evidence of a Struggle-The Write Launch Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Your Phone Call-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Sylvie of the Stone Stoop-Intermission/poetry
  • Charlie's Assessment-Intermission/poetry
  • Signed, Legally Ryn-Intermission/poetry
  • It's Been Raining-Intermission/poetry
  • Fingerprint Failure-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Bolstered by the Flask-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • I Hear Them Bleeding Hope-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • I'm Partial-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Inside Out Pain-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Probably Confabulations-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine-poetry
  • Revenant Gloam-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Lies Heavy-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Mark of the Empty-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Barely Aloof-Poet's Haven Digest Anthology, The Distance Between Insanity and Genius/poetry
  • Fata Morgana-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Time Will Spend Us-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • I Cannot Make Permanent Things-The Write Launch Literary Magazine/poetry
  • A Silence Necessary-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Tidally Locked-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Blue, I Think-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Revenant Gloam-The Write Launch Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Swiftly Flying Shadow Bands-The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Apostle of Disbelief-Poet's Haven Digest, It Was a Dark and Stormy Night AnthologPublished in The Poet’s Haven Digest Anthology, Strange Land and in The Blue Nib Literary Magazine/poetry
  • A Measurable Objective-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Cacti Toucher-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Mean Free Path-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetry
  • I am a Bridge-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetry
  • A Gurney for Me-The Feminine Collective/poetry
  • Just the Other Stuff-The Feminine Collective/poetry
  • A Valid Exit-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetryu
  • Everything Hard is Tangled-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetry
  • On Zillow-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Out by the Shed-Impspired Literary Magazine/poetry
  • Press