Cowardice slips / and there were fingerprints
There was a lot your mother carried
you over x carried you over a lot of graves
the grave of Elmer, freddy x etta, letty
Lottie lou, x Madison, the grave of William
Edmonds, mosquitos among the dead,
the grave George and Adelaide
the grave of big homie, the grave of
Mary Devaney x Died Sept 26
Aged 56 Yrs x She was a kind and
affectionate wife x a fond mother, and
friend to all x the grave of Gay
Carlos, of ronin, x of inadequate math
Where her eyes were naked and x
One with a song from Milne x
One where the tigerlilies drew on
Down Sigourney, down riverside down x
overholser, where a wheat cat went
Along the wire fence overslung
With a Muffler x One in redman
One in West Union, a little cement
Affair with a name dug out in
Fingermarks x one with a Potato
On it x and one where your mother
smoked in Bed and sang None of This
had to be written for x the sun, to still,
land on your foot bridge
my love my, love my l
My love if I had a bad dream,
I was a Cypress tree, cut into, from
Who knows, x or, leaking sap, bird
Alarm x or total, paralyzing, horror
like a song from your mother x counter
To the song she sang you, to sleep x
There were nights Id scream awake,
Just seeing towels folded neatly
In a basement or x fear of like in Dream
Songs, he never did hacks her up,
Your mother and me going over the
Happy dead in humor, affectionate x
or x gentle reminders over
Things I cant remember or x dogs, eating
Night, dreaming x Im going along
in that old place when x her figure
is like a revenent, as From a dryer vent into the Air, wan x
Dressed in a Viennese ball Gown, and
looking Out, x to Looking back x she sang
What a wonderful peace x we Came
screaming into and will x leave Nazis, x
Sang Death is a waitroom in St Cloud x
Makeing no whirlpool, and making Contact
heavy and difficult, and the x
soft sputtering after
Cowardice slips down the throat
dissolving like a pill x or a spoonful of hony,
easier in the body With it haveing been spun
by, the honey bee x in his paper
Sack, hanging in the halflight of
The canyon x Nazi graffiti scratched
Into the mirror so much x she told you
Death is the book of common song
Death is its simple letters, x deaths
To learn slowly what words will stay
And what letters x you learn first, deaths
How they fill in x left to right,
How they tell When you found your page
And there were fingerprints Already
in the margin, x
Same death is Tulip trees shakeing
down her petals like, fall in may x
deaths the humidity this side
Of the church door, x the shotgunned
Roof soffit over the modest yard
Of purple heath, x Lol sang the weight of a Stone
is a metaphor for grief, or such as grief
sang, is it to lift, x Buddy isn't it this thing of
what's past this indeterminate season
When rains lift and its still dark gray, x
She sang what hasn't happened
has a different Weight than what never
Sang about Old St Michaels
who got too big and moved to Cosgrove x
Sang about basketball and dances and Pork Day Dinner
Sang St Angela, sang the Sisters of Humility
Sang death is I love you
B, not just the soy, not only for the
Way Sappho, looks, in pen on skin, or only for
Your rib or ankle and x death is making
Love In the graveside, x deaths weak floral,
and her strong perfume
Of blackberry
Some low common / aroma of fresh strawberries
I suggest it should be Easy to wash a moths scent fromm the hand, but, x handsoap, water,
Rubbing hands on the bedsheets x each time is it A little less moth, little More sheets x
Until heres the thing, was there Always some low common smell between sheets
And moth Where you reach in to find the needle, murk, accords, and aroma has its
Logic the same as Delicate things, resembling x the air underneath them, x wings flap
Sheets flackx dry, of the formative hanging On the Clothesline, treeline, nearby
Its ok for whats thin x whats fragile, and some Cakes are light but Do contain a creme x that
Has a very light fragrance x sweet in the window, or next to Little Drops of chocolate
With rsapberry x and, colors that theyre charging Three Dollars for x get out of here
And we grasp at whats on the Plate we wouldnt x reach for in the wild x and with Hands
That carry the aroma of Fresh strawberies, It turns out that the Want is for another fruit,
Strange x Rainbow over the buildings x with all the angles of the city maneuvering
Disappear / her mother stars
We have lost the Law
that in the Deep
all things Become
Lost in a vote
and put by the bars
the coalmine canaries
my lord x
but Batter
Batter the chamberd mine
noble gasses now fill
from mixing toilet bleach
and drain cleaner
Batter the Willow, and the hollowed
White ash,
barberchairing when sawn
at the beetled middle
Batter the spalted wood you think of when
you think of the actual borers
and of the dark
that boring, is
Batter the American goodbye
in whose torcharm all
needles freeze
and all glass Sugars with
little florets of water
Batter June the sun and summer hail
batter the farewell
batter the water from the falls
the leaf tea, all
season in the Lowes bucket x
the outdoor unit, that blows
the indoor headers
Batter the hickory nut weevil where
you crack open the shell,
hes already there
Batter the law
it would take in that much deep
to wood, the tunnel lightless, on
Batter the pecan
Batter the way we begin to go
but notice the food
batter the money on the fridge,
batter the magnet on the pic x
like, the moons, rolling up
Her staying legg x
Batter the meme that takes forever
the moon setting tldr
in the Basketball Court,
falling in an arc
all night behind x slash
through the net
Batter the mysterious moon
and its hustler romance
Batter its French dream x
batter its jumping gymn,
batter its lipo drownning
In its hug x
Batter the harmless river heron
Answering Despair without
a word to x disappear
Batter Napoleon on his island
the Rockstacking threatens
batter his hellbender
Salamanders in the water reeling
Batter the little blind cow
later shot x reaching into the world
with his face and feeling
Batter whats so Pretty
on that Backlit midshelf x batter
the whisky the x water glass
batter the Kettlebell
Batter the Clontarf or the arc
of the nearempty Creek bottle
batter the xriverwater
Batter the Knob Creek and Buffalo
Trace x batter Willams
Woodford x batter the Bulleit,
Batter the makers mark
Batter Pierre Farand the Bombay
Sapphire, the Tankeray x
batter the Sazerac batter
the Balvenie the x
Woodford batter the
Doublewood the x Aberlour
the Glenfarclas
Batter the bow of the homeward boat
Batter the pierhead, gazing seaward
heave x her head
round in to the weather
Batter the CAZADORES the x
PARTIDA the Appletons white,
the cruzan the Brugal Anejo
the Ron del Barralito
the Del Magway
Batter the Anger in the Eyes
the Flor de Madre
the Mothers Flower
Batter the blossms in The soccerfield
the goalpost calling home
batter the Bad Angels falling
Batter the nights the stars falling,
the desired x the Somber trinity of
sweet mother dead falling
batter the runaway
Batter the Forted Snowtunnels
the deep footprints
in the calflevel snow
Batter the any Day Ill bury you,
the crying nose
the snowcone
the blackeye plumcolor
Batter the sun On the scattered doors
Batter the Broken x
Louvered woodslats,
Batter the hospital chard
the Appleton x Time the x indelible
landing of the River on
its riverless Points
Batter the past
batter the present unrun by Riverwater
batter the Waterrun,
batter the future Never migrating
Batter the Tension of her collar
under the x Pull of the
Necklace or the neck Under the fingers
Batter The Lock the fingers drawn upon x
The cup the Benedictine
starred out Toddler hands
Batter the gap between the face and Air
the Mother Sans Rival,
batter the Desire in the ducklings
One by one
through the threshing Gin or x
The river, Landing,
onto different spots again
Batter the x pilots in accord,
batter the Morning ofthe Bar
batter the shelf that mirrors
the bottles behind,
Batter the sea
who Twins her mother stars
Brendan Sherry is a poet based in Western North Carolina. His most recent work appears or is forthcoming in Tyger Quarterly, Always Crashing, and Paperbag. More of his work can be found at brendansherry.com.