by Tony Schanuel
Tell It Again: Bright Nova
In the beginning you were
impossible, small, wishbrought,
my need for the stars become
mathematics, become
triangles, songtangles your wings
are flames, little fish. I am
just the burning. The holding
water. O heart-rupture:
before you every day
I would forget again
the piano
is a stringed instrument,
hands untouched to filament:
a belly, a bell is only
a tunnel: this
hurtz. a sine. geomancy
that raised you, starsoul,
through strata of mica
scaled and scattering
bells, again to skin: stead, steady.
Come, storydancer mine:
a ballet, ballet. A mallet,
a baton. A ribbon—
what is the color
is the sound
brightcurrent
of refraction
at the edges
of my body—
Sherre Vernon (she/her/hers) is the author two award-winning chapbooks: Green Ink Wings (fiction) and The Name is Perilous (poetry). Her work has nominated for Best of the Net and anthologized in several collections, including Bending Genres, Fat & Queer and Best Small Fictions. In 2019, Sherre was a Parent-Writer Fellow at MVICW. Readers describe her writing as heartbreaking, richly layered, lyrical and intelligent. To read more of her work visit www.sherrevernon.com/publications and tag her into conversation @sherrevernon.
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.