Alleys: never. Boulevard: maybe. But only in broad daylight. Corners: not without a label. Dead end to end up dead. Entrance: not without a fee. Fear? Always. on route to a gangplank. Hill: where they found Heather's body. Into the garden: a flaming sword swung against Eve. Near Joshua Tree: more bodies and next to a knoll: a doll. Livid? Also always. when loathed as marionettes in the morning; nowhere girls by night. Overlook: not without witnesses. Passageway, ripe with striations where ponytail or limbs were left, evidence of trying a short-cut. Queue: movie, concert, or liquor store, not without looking over your shoulder. Railway tracks: stitches will be needed. And no forest trails or tunnels for you. Underground: not without a few hey babys. And whether by valley or viaduct, you’ll need wings to bypass the xylophonic yelp from your own throat. Wending: still not allowed. Yonder: always zip-tied.
Simone Muench is a recipient of an NEA fellowship and author of several books, including Lampblack & Ash (Sarabande; winner of the Kathryn A. Morton Prize) and Wolf Centos (Sarabande). She’s an editor of They Said: A Multi-Genre Anthology of Contemporary Collaborative Writing (Black Lawrence Press, 2018) and serves as a poetry editor for Tupelo Quarterly, advisor for Jet Fuel Review, poetry editor for JackLeg Press, and founder of the HB Sunday Reading Series. Jackie K. White is the author of three previous chapbooks and the co-author, with Simone Muench, of Hex & Howl (Black Lawrence Press, 2021). Professor Emerita at Lewis University, her poems, translations, and collaborative poems have appeared in such journals as The American Poetry Review, Denver Quarterly, Hypertext, Pleiades, and Shenandoah.
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oh, this is wonderful!! :)