I got an amazing surprise last night!  My dark little poem, “Stiff Trigger” has been nominated, by editors Kendall and Christina Bell from Chantarelle’s Notebook, for  Best of the Net!  This is a huge honor and I am so grateful.

 

Stiff Trigger

 If I used a razor, I would warm the blade,
delighting in the comfort of tepid steel,
and watch life pool in crevices on the floor.

If I took pills, I’d lay them across my palm,
sacrament for a wanting tongue,
penance doused in bitterness,
tugging on my eyelids with welcome force.

If I used a gun, it would be an antique,
with gilded barrels and a stiff trigger,
a relic of ravaged lives held gently to my lips.

 

*first published in Chantarelle’s Notebook