Emily Dolan
I.
It was too bright for nighttime
Though the clocks in the trees
Said otherwise
Their faces locked in scowl as
They ticked, growing more
more
more
Devilish with every second dead
The path was lined by shrubs
With lacrimal buds that bloomed
Thick tears
with afterglows like satin
That fell in petal-rains
as
they
aged
Pushed out by the next one
Bleeding up from the stems
Their whimpers stifled in
The mossy earth
The birds overhead
flew
backwards
Their songs – scraping metal warbles
Stitched by clumsy needles
To their throats
There’s a melody in there
somewhere
But when I think I’ve
found it, the tune changes
To squealing brakes on pavement
littered with the bushes’ tears
To flies fighting for the
last bite of beef
To the teetering quiet
before the plunge
II.
When I reached the lake –
it smelled like freshly doused fires
and stared like mirrors do-
never blinking-
And stepped up to it’s banks
The clocks looked on
bringing together their
minutes and hours hands,
in happy
applause
The
trees
shook
their
heads
When I stepped in, I felt nothing
but vague denseness
around my ankles
and sandy fingers
interlacing with my
toes, pulling my feet
forward
Any ripples were forced into submission
By some invisible force –
fear, maybe –
The lake stayed steady
as I waded
deeper,
deeper
Until it licked my throat –
-A teasing knife cloaked
in velvet-
It traced my chin and jaw
Taking its time
slowly
slowly
I relished the contact
– I begged for one more pass –
Before I filled my lungs and
– plunged –
III.
The clocks couldn’t hear my screaming
The trees judged someone else
The birds kept their songs to themselves
The shrubs kept crying – knowing nothing –
The air in my lungs
Was replaced by
Shredded glass and honey
My eardrums wobbled with
The pressure of cicada songs and
Bomb blasts without any
Of the noise
The lake unsheathed it’s sickle
And I prayed for a dream
Better than
This
One
***
Emily Dolan is a 25 year old poet currently living in Sevilla, Spain. After completing her biology degree in 2016, she moved to Europe in pursuit of a professional soccer career. She has prior poetry and fiction publications in the Mangrove Review, and has publications forthcoming in CircleShow and Inklette.