Sunday, June 30, 2019

day EIGHT HUNDRED and NINETY TWO


Great, Again

Gray regime breakfast
blunt and slow: rain pours
intermittent, sideways.
As the television drones
of political sports,
the dry eggs assault me
with unknown ingredients.

Finally, the big game:
the crowd watches, aghast.
They huddle in blankets
as the action unfolds
on the fields below. How
can one man inspire
such fear? The monster terrifies,
but he is visible. Much worse
are the ones I can't see.

Sleep in fits and starts
the night before, dream
of clever escape. Forced
into wooded exile,
my daughter and I
manage to stay miles
ahead of attackers, but she
forgets her sleeping bag.
Take mine,” I tell her,
without hesitation.

I walk across the beach
as birds argue about
leftover garbage, and
waves continue their
indifferent pounding.
The manufactured greatness
of humans is so
much less than this,
but the carnage compels
and I can't stop looking.


--Leah Mueller



Leah Mueller is an indie writer and spoken word performer from Tacoma, Washington. She is the author of two chapbooks and four books. Her next two books, "Death and Heartbreak" and "Misguided Behavior" will be published in Autumn, 2019 by Weasel Press and Czykmate Press. Leah’s work appears in Blunderbuss, The Spectacle, Outlook Springs, Atticus Review, Your Impossible Voice, and other publications. She was a featured poet at the 2015 New York Poetry Festival, and a runner-up in the 2012 Wergle Flomp humor poetry contest.

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