The Rain Acted
like a spotlight, focused in
on the abysmal litter of her life.
Her cosmic footprint: an old teapot,
mismatched coffee mugs, a hammer,
no nails, but a crowbar. She wondered
if she was using any of them properly.
She didn’t sleep, couldn’t hang
a single memory on barren walls.
Haunting failures, echoing along
with the tap tap tap of drops
against the sill. She curled herself
into a ball in the corner of an unsheeted bed.
Closed her eyes and prayed
for lightning to strike.
Raindrops on Roses
amplify the intensity of colored petals.
White echoes inside itself, mournfully wallowing
in the hollow depths of innocence. Red erupts in
excruciating simulations of fire’s fierceness.
Yellow
vibrates the tangible code of mediocrity, clings
to the medial line of tempered rebuke, the sting
of unrequited terminology, the bastard label
of friend.
Doing Laundry at Midnight
Because my mind will not stop
running itself in circles, I take
up basket and bleach, begin
to sort: whites, darks, colors. The numbing
of such chores is soothing. Slowly,
I begin to decompress. By the time the spin
cycle stutters to a stop, my head
has grown temporarily hollow,
granting my eyes permission to finally close.
 |
A.J. Huffman
has published seven solo chapbooks and one joint chapbook through various
small presses. She is a Pushcart Prize nominee, and the winner of the 2012
Promise of Light Haiku Contest. Her poetry, fiction, and haiku have appeared
in hundreds of national and international journals, includingLabletter,
The James Dickey Review, Bone Orchard, EgoPHobia, Kritya, and Offerta
Speciale, in which her work appeared in both English and Italian
translation. She is also the founding editor of Kind of a Hurricane
Press. www.kindofahurricanepress.com.
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