Poetry by deborah brandon

By Guest Contributor on February 11, 2015

on my modern maidenless
voyage, i’m stitched onto the sky.
the boy next to me on the plane spills
his sugar all over the boy
beside him. me. a window
funneling fire.

.
AND IT IS WRITTEN:

by my mouth. orlando’s neck. hair
close-cropped.
my fingers in home
traveling beside
her stranded necklace
it’s just sun it’s
time for him to look away
peeling back clouds
sticking them down again
she licks her finger, presses it against my leg
and returns it to her mouth
the root of all

.
AND IT IS WRITTEN:

to pray properly, look at her
neck in the light
and all throughout
the terminal the white
clouding me from view
how often do birds strike, behold.

the valley .
the shadow of death .

∞

sparrow can’t find a tide here

…………does he know about birds

…………does he know about scorpions

………………………………his one chance to choose his own walls

…………& will they be green

…………& will they part easily

sparrow’s a dark bird he is through with blue and so bright

a beaklike shadow

all every rut washboarding his jaw, wiring shut

………………………of course you are a beautiful boy

.
a bird glancing his orange eye

but this call is different, more isolated

if i zoom out i will still know

in a sea of eyes ………….the sun casting waves, calling

porosity like it is — as evidenced by the sun — sparrow i will let you

inside to exist without shadows

we would become egrets we would move

but slowly, and only between reeds

the road bears its teeth in a rusted coffee can, will not care to answer

…………and they will worry.

…………time for the carriage

………………..close the door………… & away to many misgenderings

.
warm to the touch

creosote

the sun paling wind through his hair

.
we don’t see many of your type around here, sparrow’s mother said

i retorted:

if you want a picture of this ………..put your camera where my mouth is

deborah brandon lives in Tucson and holds an MFA in Writing from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Additional work appears in or is forthcoming from: Transom, Ocho, MiPOesias, here/there: poetry, [PANK], Bombay Gin, Mom Egg Review, Denver Quarterly, Moonshot, Hotel Amerika, Cadillac Cicatrix, Puerto del Sol, Slipstream, and Evergreen Chronicles; and the anthologies Writing the Walls Down, published by TransGenre Press and Anthology of Georgia Poetry, published by Negative Capability Press.