Imminent

Tonya Eberhard

twilight  /  i turn pale as a milk carton’s insides  /  somewhere  /  a baby rests in the arms of a cradle  /  i cannot  /  one day i will nail the sun down  /  it will not glow orange  /  sink below the horizon  /  dusk  /  a coarse blue lessens the chance of dawn  /  any dawn  /  i close my chest cavity with a lock  /  a key from the dresser drawer  /  i am held together  /  i am not vulnerable  /  i have a hope in a shoebox under the bed  /  dark  /  the stars shimmer silver  / wide awake  /  they do not blink  /  i close my eyes  /  i open my eyes  /  they wink  /  they know something i do not know  /  they will not tell  /  i never kept a secret well  /  the curtain pulls back  /  what now?  /  what now?  /  i see a moon approaching  /  i see an insomnia rising

 

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Tonya Eberhard’s most recent work has appeared in Glassworks magazine, THAT Literary Review, and Thirty West Publishing House. She is a 2019 Pushcart Prize nominee.