Andrew Clark
(for Lem)
Wherever there is light, look for the shadow. The shadow is me.
– Anais Nin
I.
slackjaw creeping through the trees
down the mountain
slackjaw moving over the surface
of the deep
the|mob chased the clown down the trees
through the mountains
out of the hollows
out into the flatland
till the red dirt
and pine needle floors
slackjaw found the very edge of the everything
and crossed over
II.
i was born at first cock crow
{peter denied christ six times}
i was born in a white out
swaddled in blue
stripe white blankets
nurses laid (us) on the yellow table
& the elders ate
all (our) fruit | inside out
mama never forgave me (for)
Lem’s passing on that table
mama never forgave
all the scarecrows | a dark flame
in the corn field snow
III.
my twin brother,
daddy’s missing rib
baby in an unmarked grave
behind the old freewill baptist church
where bad girls showed me their private
parts out under the monkey bars.
people said i choked him out
Lem,
my big brother
by 7 minutes
but i never done it
never had to
IV.
Lemuel:
a wound
that eats all my
insides out
the way the
strawberries
bruise
along the
bottom
***
Andrew K. Clark is a writer from Asheville, NC. His poetry collection, Jesus in the Trailer, was published by Main Street Rag Press. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The American Journal of Poetry, UCLA’s Out of Anonymity, Appalachian Review, Rappahannock Review, and The Wrath Bearing Tree. Connect with him at andrewkclark.com.