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issue 3: HEATWAVE

you had your soul with you

KEVIN A. RISNER
– after The National –
Mine hung on the flagpole
When the temperature reached 90 degrees for three days straight
Again. You have no idea how hard I died when you left.
The back seat is lined with towels, dried leaves on the floor,
Towers of library books I haven’t read, never will.
Where do passengers go for respite:
A seat at the bar with a beer and a glass
To inspect the counter for hidden grime?
There’s always a recounting of the past decade.
A Lazy Day Parade. A sham election.
I was in no mood
To hear this. Strings of lyrics pausing in the sky
Wait for change that won’t come.
I am carried to space by a dolphin balloon.
There’s a voice snaking in the silence right before sleep,
In the pain in the middle of a fork in the road,
At a wrong turn.
There’s heartbreaking truth in the raspiest of voices,
Love submerged with an underwater chorus.
Vibrating light emanates from our chests.
I gasp as this one song pauses at the bridge:
It crawls and peeks over the edge into the river.
Maybe souls can be moved
Here ... at the end of everything.
Note: italicized lines in this poem are lyrics from songs on The National’s most recent album: I Am Easy to Find. “You Had Your Soul with You” is the name of the first song on the album.

Kevin A. Risner is an Ohioan; is author of My Ear is a Sieve (Bottlecap Press, 2017), Lucid (The Poetry Annals, 2018), and Five Seconds Could Last Five Years (2020); and has published or has work forthcoming in Glass, Lines+Stars, Mineral Lit Mag, Ocean State Review, Variant Lit, and others.
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header photo: anton darius (unsplash)

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