by Tony Schanuel
NASA Scientists Confirm Earth Dating the Moon
(after an Onion headline)
and the poets mourn. Two mourning doves
resurrect a nest in their rib cages. Leave
caged all the wild desires silently coursing
paths through our capillaries. Chart the path
through milky star-soaked seas. Wait to see
the other side of the coin. Smother the seconds
burning time away and away
we go. Lipsticked and hip checked, licking
the salt from the edge of our drinks. Run
our hands through the air thick as night.
Orbit the sticky side-
walks and talk like Picasso
is swirling our tongues. Wide-eyed
in happenstance, betting on these sliced
curtains falling. Catwalk across Cheshire-
cat-toothed constellations and tear the jaws
of the multiverse open and open
me up wide as the ozone.
Erica Abbott (she/her) is a Philadelphia-based poet and writer whose work has previously appeared or is forthcoming in Gnashing Teeth, Selcouth Station, Anti-Heroin Chic, Bandit Fiction, Brave Voices Magazine, and other journals. She is the author of Self-Portrait as a Sinking Ship (Toho, 2020), her debut poetry chapbook. She volunteers for Button Poetry and Mad Poets Society. Follow her on Instagram @poetry_erica and on Twitter @erica_abbott.
Tony Schanuel is an award-winning photographer and visual artist who has fused a professional background in photography, digital technology, and painting and mark making to create fine art that transcends those mediums. His work has been featured in Digital Imaging Magazine, Computer Graphic Magazine, Wild Heart Journal, St. Louis Design Magazine, and is a featured artist in Cyber Palette and Extreme Graphics, two books showcasing digital artists and their work. He has exhibited at the Florence Biennale and his art is held in private and corporate collections including the Fine Arts Museum of Houston permanent photographic collection.