By: Heather Quinn
after torrin a. greathouse
i examine the bones of an incandescent bulb, crystalline glass, base & socket, thin wiry v relic of winged light i remember being chased by a ghost from my bed to the landing crying out to dad his face cast in television lowlights he scooped me up, tucked me back in, kissed my forehead & clicked on the bedside lamp ghosts always disappear in the light, he said dad died months before my wedding day his wedding band bound to my wrist with satin ribbon i imagined him as we wrapped his & her bulbs in black velvet smashed the glass beneath our feet later we picked up the broken shards, crushed metal burned the remains in a fire pit sealed them in a mason jar tonight i shake the jar like a snow globe watch the ashes bloom into embers, into dad’s image as it flickers, a reel of celluloid lit by one struck match
//
i examine the bones ofof an incandescent bulb crystalline glass base & socket thin wiry v
relic of winged light i remember being chased by a ghost from my bed to the landing
crying out to dad his face cast in television lowlights he scooped me up tucked me
back in kissed my forehead & clicked on the bedside lamp ghosts always disappear in
the light he said dad died months before my wedding day his wedding band
bound to my wrist wit e d him as we wrapped his & he bulbs in
black velvet smashed the glass beneath our feet picked up the broken sh w
a r d s crushed metal burned the remains in a fire pit sea l ed them in a mason jar
tonight i shake the jar like a snow globe watch the ashes bloom into embers
into dad’s image as it flickers a reelcelluloid lit by one struck match
//
bones of an iof winged light idad his face cast in televisioghost s
always before m bound to my e d him as we wrapped his & metal bu like a snow globe
he loom ins a s a reel of celllits c atch
Heather Quinn is a poet and artist living in California. She was a finalist in House Mountain Review's 2019 Broadside contest, a semi-finalist in Cutthroat's 2020 Joy Harjo's Poetry Prize & Prometheus Dreaming's 2019 Unbound Competition, & was featured in Palette Poetry's "Poetry We Admire" for her poem “Shroud with Lead Wing” originally published in Raw Art Review. Recent publishing credits include the New York Times, 42 Miles Press, Cathexis Northwest Press, Ghost City Review, High Shelf Press, Inkwell Press, Kissing Dynamite Poetry, & Burninghouse Press. You can find her work at heatherquinnpoet.com & on Instagram at @hquinnpoet.
תגובות