The Edges of Things
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Sylvie of the Stone Stoop

Picture


Sylvie of the Stone Stoop
Published in Intermission, November 2018
poetry
​

I talk with Sylvie of the stone stoop
as her hand digs
around in the Cheetos bag for crumbs
and her bare feet swaddled in socks

made entirely of dirt
trace circles in the pea rocks.
The humidity is already buzzing
every insect in the county

on a breezeless breathless day
so I speak up
knowing her momma
is listening on the other side

of the screen door.
Sylvie builds mountains of pea rocks
surrounding a crater where her
castle grows formidable and queens

are kings and her queen commands
armies of lionesses
who stalk the perimeter of the realm
so quietly

not even a goddess could hear.
Sylvie’s cousin from St. Louie
mounts an attack
to break all of the beautiful things

in the kingdom
and is then banished to the weeds
by the dislodged drain pipe
where he will be eaten later

by rats.
After we have named everything
in the grocery bags I brought
and the afternoon is just beginning

to wring out
the morning
we stand to do the goodbye dance
and I promise to come inside next time.

My voice slides off the ripped screen door.
On my way down
the gravel road I turn back
to claim my forgotten messenger bag.

Picking my way through
the weeds by the drain pipe
I round the corner as
Sylvie questions,

“Momma, why don’t we like her again?”
Sylvie’s momma sighs
drags deep and long
on her Pall Mall

then exhales,
“Damn it, Sylvie.
She ain’t Jesus people.”
I cannot get

her words in my ears
and I am not certain
I can stand
​to hold these lonely things.
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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
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  • 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
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  • Press