BRIDGES
“But that first loss/ was like no other” -A. Notley
i remember another new orleans
beneath this new orleans
a planchette skirting letter
spell me disclosed melodies
scanning the line, i was hooked
to the idea of predatory behavior
stop point, where the wheel drags
to undress the vulnerable
can anyone stay gentle here
held up the number of fingers
heart broken but what we calmed
against was the work mattering
i pulled up how to move in
and out of escape: planet
means wanderer, and i would go there
to say out of your mind, to say a resistance
to rational, to say postvocalic in the wide
open source, a scrumple in the universe
i got caught up in the ramble, tameless
you could let me loose in your life
neither familiar or domesticated, tamped
down, edge of this dream like a tangle
leap, she whispers, cross lifetimes, i am
always hearing who i lose next
tell me where we put what we don’t want
to know: how to hold this heart’s
door open while it floods, capture sun
light you could scoop over memory
a licking at the cheek so i drift
slowly, ghosted of every time i heard
your voice last. there is always every
time i heard your voice. there.
Megan Burns is the publisher at Trembling Pillow Press (tremblingpillowpress.com). She is the co-director of the New Orleans Poetry Festival (nolapoetry.com) and has been hosting the Blood Jet Poetry Reading Series in New Orleans for the last six years. She has three books Memorial + Sight Lines (2008), Sound and Basin (2013) and Commitment (2015) published by Lavender Ink. Her recent chapbooks include: her Twin Peaks chap, Sleepwalk With Me (Horse Less Press, 2016), Beneath the Drift (Red Mare, 2019) and FUCK LOVE: I’m sorry someone hurt you (Shirt Pocket Press, 2019). Her fourth collection, BASIC PROGRAMMING, was published by Lavender Ink in 2018. Her forthcoming collection is called PLURALITY.