by Jim Ross
Lonely Plain
The dream of nowhere and no one,
jar of lightning between my legs.
You know how to be lonely
better than anyone, she told me,
pride tucked behind her teeth.
I had no heart to tell her
I had no other choice. The plains
cannot become the mountains any more
than I could become a butterfly. I have been
the dream of Oklahoma since my youth.
Shae Krispinsky lives in Tampa, FL, where she fronts the band, Navin Avenue. Her band’s first album, A Little Warming, and her debut novel, Like Lightning, were released in 2022. In 2023, Bottlecap Press released her first poetry chapbook, New Galilee. Shae is also a photographer, tarot reader, and janky baker. Find her at https://www.instagram.com/dearwassily/..
Jim Ross jumped into creative pursuits in 2015 after a rewarding research career. With a graduate degree from Howard University, in eight years he’s published nonfiction, fiction, poetry, photography, hybrid, and plays in 200 journals on five continents. Photo publications include Burningword, Camas, DASH, Feral, Litro, Kestrel, Phoebe, Stonecoast, Sweet, and Typehouse. He is a 2024 Best of the Net nominee in Art.