What Rough Beast | Poem for March 19, 2019

Devon Balwit
Laodicean

I hatchet, blade a bright sever
between vertebrae. Miry

against hide, I goat,
fingertips trembling.

I crack-slat my darkened
window, taking

a bead on narrowing
boxcars and Black Marias.

Wafer palate-stuck, I commune,
stingy sips, never enough

to dislodge the clot that sticks
at the center.

Devon Balwit is the author of A Brief Way to Identify a Body (Ursus Americanus Press, 2018). Her poems have appeared in Rattle, Poets Reading the News, The NewVerse News, The Ekphrastic Review, Peacock Journal, and more. For more of her poetry, reviews, collections, and chapbooks, visit her website, devonbalwitpoet.

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