Grief if not a Puppet
by Philip Schaefer
Featured art: “Maybe More Than This” by Edward Lee
They said it looked like someone had taken an elephant
tusk to the back of your skull. They said your wallet
wasn’t, in fact, missing. They said it was raining, that you were
glowing like a spider in a web of blood. The angels
already singing through the mouth of an ambulance siren.
Your breath windowing through your ribs like an accordion
deflating. I’d like to think it was a scene in a movie, a flashback.
That the wooden bat was a cartoon drawing, something
time would erase like a chalk line. But that too, was you.
& the rain became your hair, & the rain poured out
of your eyes like a fortune, a secret from another planet.
& eventually they said no foul play, no police report, no sand
line between anger & peace. But what is grief
if not a puppet you wear over your face? A wolf mask
at a costume party you weren’t invited to. Two bull dogs
& a wife who’s already been a widow once. All of St. Louis
in slow motion. They said your last word was her first name.
& if you listen to the vision, it goes something like
Connie, Connie, Connie, Connie, Connie, Connie, Connie, Call Me.
Philip Schaefer’s collection Bad Summon (University of Utah Press, 2017) won the Agha Shahid Ali Poetry Prize, while individual poems have won contests published by The Puritan, Meridian, & Passages North. His work has been featured on Poem-A-Day, Poetry Daily, Verse Daily, and in The Poetry Society of America. He recently opened a modern Mexican restaurant called The Camino in Missoula, MT.
Edward Lee is an artist and writer from Ireland. His paintings and photography have been exhibited widely, while his poetry, short stories, non-fiction have been published in magazines in Ireland, England and America, including The Stinging Fly, Skylight 47, Acumen and Smiths Knoll. He is currently working on two photography collections: 'Lying Down With The Dead' and 'There Is A Beauty In Broken Things.' He also makes musical noise under the names Ayahuasca Collective, Orson Carroll, Lego Figures Fighting, and Pale Blond Boy. More of his work can be found at edwardmlee.wordpress.com.