Born and Reborn

There is no easy way out of this no easy way in just a foreign hand pulling into the light air a cry of breath a longing to return to swim again in another being to fall back be caught Copyright © 2019 by AJ Saur, from Particles in Motion (Murmuration Press).

Apophasis

He’s not dreaming of a white Christmas or wishing upon a star. He doesn’t even read his horoscope in the Sunday paper nor is he the least bit concerned that today marks an ideal time to invest in new relationships. This is because he’s not really into the whole concept of days let alone hours, […]

Static

In the slim hours of night if I set the dial just so I can hear her voice her slight British accent hovering between the hash marks telling me how the bar-headed goose migrates over the Himalayas at astonishing altitudes. How, by surfing a thermal it moves up and down up and down riding the […]

Loneliness

Scientists say our neurons can snap fifty times per second. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that I can’t keep up with myself. So much information passes just below the skin, my body sharing secrets I can’t comprehend. Perhaps my gurgling stomach, that insistent pulse at my wrist are trying to tell me how much […]

Nearsighted

I marvel that my genes, worn and faded, continue to be handed down father to daughter, mother to son each successive generation further from the original— crisp seams, clearly defined curves of the double-helix. Apparently my ancestors were farsighted enough to slip a folded bill into Mother Nature’s bloomers, a tip for the slight tipping […]

Eternal God of Contingent Things

I awaken after midnight to winter’s wolves howling outside my window. As I pull the blanket up under my chin I can’t help but wonder if a howl is still a howl if no one like me is startled out of sleep to hear it. Of course, this remains the age-old question whether falling trees, […]

Entropy Needs No Fuel

That new car smell always fades exits through the powered windows past the perfectly positioned windshield out over the sparkling hood which you wish would blind you, pull a hood over your head so you can’t see everything go downhill. Even Moses had his veil and you need something to keep yourself from yourself and […]

Turning Forty

Standing waist deep in crumpled days, emptied skins now discarded you hold the final box, the last present present full as the others once were with such promise. Your hand is poised to tear the seal, to reveal a new thing, an old thing, a moment of such sameness that you must pay attention to […]

Receiving a Celebratory Cereal Coupon

On my tenth birthday I wrote a letter to Kellogg’s telling them how much I loved their cereal. Well, not all their cereal. Not Shredded Wheat those little bales of hay on which my parents grazed each morning coarse and tasteless but a “Godsend to the GI system” my mother said. No, it was Frosted […]

And the Multitudes were Fed

To the casual onlooker they appear to be practicing their steps novice dancers balancing overflowing baskets whispering left, right, left as they waltz around darting children, dozing elders Their partner in the dance as unexpected as the fantastical journey that led them to this hilly dance floor where they now hold hands with something heavier […]