Not Unlike That Which Separated Romeo and Juliet.
by Caitlin Clevenger
Hands
Brush in the hall
Eyes
Lock for a momentWhile the world slows around us, our contact spreads
Love me like a vine in sunlight.
Yet we move on, those hands moving farther
Though they long to connect.
Those eyes looking away,
Though they yearn to unite.
Because I am an 8,
And you are maybe a 3.
Metaphor
by Anonymous
Life is a whirring
Electric can opener
Slicing through
The metal of my
Existence
Turning me around
To face the other way
Slicing me thoroughly
Until it’s done
And I drop Dead
I am open like the can
All my tomato sauce
Spilling out Like blood
Because life
Decapitated me
Like a whirring
Electric can opener
‘T is so much joy! ‘T is so much joy!
If I should fail, what poverty!
And yet, as poor as I
Have ventured all upon a throw;
Have gained! Yes! Hesitated so
This side of victory!
Life is but life, and death but death!
Bliss is but bliss, and breath but breath!
And if, indeed, I fail,
At least to know the worst is sweet.
Defeat means nothing but defeat,
No drearier can prevail!
And if I gain, — oh, gun at sea,
Oh, bells that in the steeples be,
At first repeat it slow!
For heaven is a different thing
Conjectured, and waked sudden in,
And might o’erwhelm me so!
“
| — | emily dickinson |
I heard a Fly buzz - when I died -
The Stillness in the Room
Was like the Stillness in the Air -
Between the Heaves of Storm -
The Eyes around - had wrung them dry -
And Breaths were gathering firm
For that last Onset - when the King
Be witnessed - in the Room -
I willed my Keepsakes - Signed away
What portion of me be
Assignable - and then it was
There interposed a Fly -
With Blue - uncertain stumbling Buzz -
Between the light - and me -
And then the Windows failed - and then
I could not see to see -
“
| — | Emily Dickinson, I heard a Fly buzz |
