Chad W. Lutz
they’re hoping
for a flash of that
seven-inch smile
the oak in the cemetery
spreading their roots
polite scrabbling fingers
knocking politely
on the sides
of cement coffin casings
one by one
asking
are you the Black Dahlia?
no the Black Dahlia says
I’m Death
& suddenly
she’s peeking
around the corner
of my partially
open closet door
clock hands
wave just
past midnight
& with those polite
scrabbling fingers
she crawls across
the floor to
tap the sides
of my human skull
& says
are you Chad Lutz?
in the moonlight
trickling through
my window like spears I say
no I’m Fear
Chad W. Lutz was born in Akron, Ohio, in 1986 and raised in the neighboring suburb of Stow. They graduated from Kent State University with their BA in English in 2008 and from Mills College in Oakland, California, with their MFA in Creative Writing in 2018. Their first book, For the Time Being, is slated for a March 2020 publication through J. New Books.