Young bone
bends
Sways
like saplings
before it splinters
With enough pressure
a skull caves
dark interior
extinguishable by the light
Your hands
are perfect
tools for it
the shape
of love
all craft all armor
palms
like mallets
even at rest
every surface
a target
Cambridge, MA, 2019
REACTION TIME IS A FACTOR IN THIS SO PLEASE PAY ATTENTION
When you meet she crosses
the room to you Precisely
This hand in this suit
coat pocket This arm
swinging here to here Football
measured heel to tile
a steady knocking
When she pulls the trigger
she takes life to save yours
Follows you home
waits for your heart
to soften past the edges
to stop hedging at the light
When you finally reach
she will be just out of reach
Already out of the frame
Already lifting her jacket
from the chair sleeves waving
from her brisk walking
Cambridge, MA, 2019
I WOULD HAVE PREFERRED HIS ARMS
or to be formed of clay
But I was not asked
What's inside turns me
toward him
even now
as he cracks
the turtle's shell
just to peek inside pull
the halves apart
I watch
wish for him to find
what he needs
in this
so he can name it
Today
just beyond
the tree line
for the second time
I forgot him
A kind of death
I didn't know I wanted
a joy
all my own
Cambridge, MA, 2019
Ralph Pennel is the author of A World Less Perfect for Dying In, published by Cervena Barva Press. Ralph’s writing has appeared in The Ocean State Review, The Iowa Review, Literary Orphans, F(r)iction, and various other publications. His work has been nominated for a Pushcart, the Best Small Fictions Anthology, and he was twice a finalist for Somerville Poet Laureate. Ralph is a founding editor and the fiction editor for the online literary journal, Midway Journal.
YOU HAVE BURNED SO VERY BRIGHTLY