Photo by Perchek Industrie on Unsplash
For Karen Davis, The Grudge (2004)
Your ochre ghost
cracks an egg
into my nightmare
and fevers a demon
through my chest
as the syrup of time
thwaps its hair
against my heart
like grenadine tears
in the fabric
of all the holy men
who have ever blessed me.
Why am I still
this cattle of glow sticks
weeping in the dark
while the children
eat the stars whole
with their eyes
that tumble death
into galaxies
of thick black rope?
Where do you go
when your eyes close,
when you nurse
your body into
trauma and back again?
When you succumb
to your haunting
of double hands,
a face pressing
through the flesh
of your dreams?
You are unaware
of their eyes watching.
You are asleep
in the galaxy
of your own fear.
I slumbered my whole
life in horror
and now I speak
to you in tongues
to wake you
to drown out
the tongues
of the children
who slug
the walls
and persuade you
that your body
is but a memory
of the city
you bury your
fate in.
Erik Fuhrer is the author of Eye Apocalypse, in which I take myself hostage (Spuyten Duyvil Press), At Root, every time you die (Alien Buddha Press), VOS (Yavanika Press), and not human enough for the census (Vegetarian Alcoholic Press). Their writing was an honorable mention for Survision’s Inaugural James Tate Chapbook Prize. They hold an MFA from The University of Notre Dame, and are a Ph.D. candidate in creative writing from The University of Glasgow. Find them at www.erik-fuhrer.com.