in the back of the museum is the oldest room
the door is always shut but unlocked
when you go in no one will stop you
no one else is ever inside
the ceilings are low dark
hushed still air
in the room
a dozen glass boxes
atop a dozen black velvet pedestals
inside each glass box
a specimen of fossilized light
you step closer to the fossils
the room is darker colder
the room itself accommodates no future
the room’s only time is already past
the room is ending ending ending ending
andyou andthelight
andthere are no labels
or titles or descriptions to read
andthere are no names only
the velvet andthe glass
andthe fossils of light perspiring
their memory of burning and
you
the memory you’ve already lit
Pregnancy Poem
I am two prophets / I am the space between bones / melted as cheese
/ I am more / but less individual / I am not sorry enough / with my
cupped hands / I am a bucket everyone asks / is that a bucket / I am
sick with questions / I am moonstupid / I am water and mineral / and
mucus and the angriest hair / I am more wounded than ever / I am
giant sadness / I am a raw planet / I am a swollen arrow / I worry the
air
Take a break from the news
We publish your favorite authors—even the ones you haven't read yet. Get new fiction, essays, and poetry delivered to your inbox.
YOUR INBOX IS LIT
Enjoy absorbing fiction from Recommended Reading on Mondays, strange, diverting work from The Commuter on Wednesdays, and a roundup of our best work of the week on Fridays. Personalize your subscription preferences here.
Sign up for our newsletter to get submission announcements and stay on top of our best work.
YOUR INBOX IS LIT
Enjoy absorbing fiction from Recommended Reading on Mondays, strange, diverting work from The Commuter on Wednesdays, and a roundup of our best work of the week on Fridays. Personalize your subscription preferences here.
Thank You!
Manage Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behavior or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Marketing
The technical storage or access is required to create user profiles to send advertising, or to track the user on a website or across several websites for similar marketing purposes.