H.E. Fisher
p o e t r y
Acorn
When big brother recites
Chicken Little
The sky is falling,
the sky is falling
a promise drops
Bad things happen
bad made less bad
absorbing shock
runs in the family
granny reads tea leaves
cousin wakes with starts
fingertips press eyelids
psychedelic laser show
distracts from
bedtime premonitions,
anticipations, some-
thing
going down
something
always
going
down
Brother will get sick
Mommy will die
Lilac bush will dry
Roof will leak and
waste a thousand 45s
trails black on black on
black spill across dream-
less seamless funk
all comes true as
child and Chicken
glance up, cry
to known future
as grace
Quill
some journeys have feathers
seven-year-old’s calamus, rachid, barb
pencilled cursive on lined 3 x 5
discarded in Superman waste can
use your words use your words use your words
anneal hard thoughts, molten their core
ABC’s forged into horseshoes, swords, armour
graphite helices true as eye color
careful what you say, can’t take it back
salvaged scrap, iron and steel
tensile, sacred nest woven safe
this is the boy this is the boy

H.E. Fisher is pursuing an MFA in Creative Writing at City College of New York. Her work has appeared in The Rumpus, The Hopper, JMWW, Hip Mama, among other publications. She can be found at Twitter via @redbisons and https://www.hefisher.com/.