Scott Ferry

sparkle

there was a time when i wouldn’t notice the flash and weft of sun on water / back when i didn’t need to notice god in the wind / back when i didn’t need tangible evidence / back when i could just be unholy walking with the thunder and the broken psalms // but now i know i am broken and faithless / now i must collect each strand of light as it falls and weave it into my splayed chest / a threaded rosary keeping all the brightness in my blood / i must do this because i have to laugh with my children / because i have to show them there is music on the black waters / that there are sapphires on all of the graves

sin

i am falling asleep without my cpap / the middle of my body keeps opening until the feeling of being without a shell becomes soothing / the blood as a mist the bones crackling into a fine chalk / the presence inside of me now something singing / the words now a sloping breeze over the bed / but when i try to fly up the charcoal castles and canyons i fall jagged back into an asphyxiation / a seatbelt stinging sharply against my clavicle / a blush of epinephrine / i am alive again and the first thing i feel is shame

Scott Ferry helps our Veterans heal as a RN in the Seattle area. His latest book is a collaboration with Lillian Necakov and Lauren Scharhag titled Midnight Glossolalia from Meat For Tea Press. He also has a collaboration titled Fill Me With Birds with Daniel McGinn looking for a home. More of his work can be found @ ferrypoetry.com.