The World Stops for the Grieving

          the world stops for the grieving :: but only for a minute :: stoplights time our tears :: blink when
          we should let our feelings wilt :: policemen can escort us :: for only so long :: every life curfews
          but so few of us :: know when to sleep :: someone demands I end my weeping :: but I can’t name
          them :: I can’t name anyone who wants to see me cry :: people prefer me dry :: uncracked :: pink
          :: with a throat that doesn’t swim when it breathes :: someone says I am veering the wrong way ::
          down the intersection between death and waste :: there is nowhere else to go :: one day :: I will
          leak like a pipe :: I will not end :: the earth will not stop shaking ::

Jolt

          God’s fingers are telephone poles.
          He touches us. We don’t want it.

          Birds could exist without us.
          They sing for themselves.

          Is it bad to desire
          something for myself?

          Mailmen hand me envelopes
          and I still can’t read the letters.

          I will not talk about the light.
          I am sure that God ate birds

          for their feathers and softness.
          I am sure that God would canary

          if he could. I want a mountain, maybe.
          Where is the charge I was promised?

          I am supposed to jolt. I am the only one
          who must burn to rebuild.

          This is not talking about the light.
          Either way, no one can hear me.

          I know that God is not yellow. Too much
          humming. Not enough puddle.

          Funny how birds don’t fear falling.
          Maybe lightning. Maybe their feelings

          aren’t malleable like ours are. I want wings
          but not the burden of flight. I want less heavy.

          I want peaks. Electric cables. A god
          to eat me. Something that shocks.

Samantha Fain is an undergraduate student studying creative writing at Franklin College. Her work has appeared in The Indianapolis Review, SWWIM, Dirty Paws Poetry, Utterance, and others.    TWITTER.
NEXT
BACK