Art: Marie Dashkova
SONNET 4 (ENSCONCED)
The problem missing ashtrays, grudge the world
against this hesitate and halt, or sleep
a night right past, so thrust the heart, a bird–
the form is flutter, hold, is wait to leap.
And speaking grudges, money’s out, no eggs,
the phone’s gone dead, still hesitate and halt,
this shoving back and push a syntax leg on leg
between the puffs and ash and salt.
A sandwich, this and pickles, a face across
gone dark, a sound, a word, a stop can’t reach
through air like cheese and grasp electric moss–
that laughing Ariadne string and path.
Someplace without a line straight through to hold,
but curling, pausing, resting, water, smoke.
About the author:
Working loosely in the experimental/ language/Black Mountain/ NY School traditions, Heidi A. Howell has published poems in online and print literary magazines, including s/word, Psychic Meatloaf, The Eastern Iowa Review, Otoliths, la fovea, What Light, So To Speak: A Feminist Journal of Language and Art, and the Washington Review, which nominated her work for a Pushcart. She holds an MFA from George Mason University, Fairfax, VA.
Art: Marie Dashkova
In the artist’s words: