S. k. brownell
after Anselm Keifer
only Soldier in the Wood,
Trees are your Spines after
they rip out your Spine.
all of your Ancestors
busy blossoming through
Floorboards, Fire, Fear:
vier, the Children in your Family
vier, the Months you spent
climbing the Mountain
to the Forest of Soldiers,
of Uniforms that float
empty, above death Tolls
and Tithes from the Church,
the only Theatre in your Hometown
that asks you to suspend
your Disbelief from a Noose
your Socks from a Clothesline
your Life for a Country
in the Forest of Soldiers
on Fire.
You are the last of Generations
whose Hair only grows under Helmets
peaked like Polish Spires
whose Ancestors were sawn
in two Floorboards
who were born from the Mouth
of a River that runs
away from the War and the
Forest,
a place to get lost in,
the Forest of Flies.
***
S.K. Brownell’s work has won the National Partners of the American Theatre Playwriting Excellence Award, a Sewanee Writers Conference Tennessee Williams Scholarship, and the Solstice Literary Magazine Editor’s Choice Award, and has appeared in or is forthcoming from Great Lakes Review, Solstice Literary Magazine, Crab Fat Magazine, Punt Volat, Decoded: Pride Anthology, and other publications. Stephanie holds an MFA from Boston University, teaches writing at GrubStreet, and creates with Artists Theater of Boston.