Danse Macabre XXIX

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Ed Higgins

on bad days

 

the poem sits there like a daw

scolding the sky, other birds,

 

me in a winter corner of the garden

of lost language            wondering 

 

if crocus will ever seek the light

again through all this cold.

open window

 

summer & restless august

night. even the moon 

uncomfortably sweating 

yellow cheese out of 

cratered glands

while I am lying here

hoping for the slightest

breeze, even my mate 

to sigh & stir the dull air.

thru the open window

dark smelling scents

from the mushroom

farm up the road

their straw and 

chicken manure

compost so thick 

you could grow 

mushrooms

on your tongue.

 

Ed Higgins' poems and short fiction have appeared in Pindeldyboz, CrossConnect, Word Riot, The Hiss Quarterly, and Poems Niederngasse, among others. My wife and I live on a small farm with a menagerie of animals including an emu named To & Fro. I teach creative writing and literature at George Fox University, south of Portland, Oregon. Danse Macabre welcomes him to our pages.