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/.