Michelle Watts: The Burn Pile

Photo: Joanna C. Valente

city slicked  

oh yes’m  /  I belong to the burn pile     /   

up & up / ember-sulkin’ moonshine /   becoming the rip of grass b/w  horned calves’ 

teeth  / the sizzle-snap scream of a mama’s branded thigh / orange ladybug that bites  /     candlelight vigil by the splintered fence /  confined to the pyre-spit watching / a lonestar / somewhere on singed knees /  scourin’  the woodland floor            

   /  tryin’  trying   I’ve tried       to clean up that last spill of sunlight 

 daylight savings 

find our rituals where I’ve hidden them 

 our good nights    our good mornings 

          they are heavy things             drownin’ stones 

    I have gone                    black bird                    gone                

leaving blue dawn features         

                                            that tar your fingertips 

singing nomadic lyrics               

                    & 

                                                                    you reach 

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Michelle Watts is a multidisciplinary artist from Oklahoma. Her poetry has been featured in Adirondack Review, Petrichor, and Anti-Heroin Chic. Her multimedia chapbook, Dis(_), is available from Dancing Girl Press.