It will sound
like a flute, flies
swarming.
It will feel
like two needles,
one hot, one cold.
Never a perfect
science,
you will lose
some of what passed
through your heart.
Matter is not created
or destroyed
but leaves you
like lives leave you
with dishes, ashes,
one thin dog.
It will taste like salt.
It will smell like sugar
burning, you will suffer
a hangover you will suffer
more than that.
Clare Welsh is a writer and photographer based in New Orleans. A graduate of the MFA writer’s workshop at the University of New Orleans, her work has appeared in McSweeny’s Internet Tendencies, Southern Glossary, Poets Reading The News, NPR, WHIV New Orleans, and other places on air, in print, and online. Her chapbook Chimeras is available through Finishing Line Press.
Appears In
Cagibi Issue 6
