Page 69 - WTP Vol. VII #1
P. 69
chriS BuLLarD
Gasp
coughing through meditations I can’t tell what invisible stuff I’m taking in
might be breathing
complex petrochemical discharges might be living off heavy metals
wish I could swear off air go backwards deep down into the black river ooze
mud-blind under some log
I’d let water running through my gills calm me like morphine
any ambitious lungfish
playing that evolutionary skin game trading fins for legs
I’d say to him buddy
you don’t know how good it is snuggling in these equivocal depths
upstairs everything is so clear you start thinking
you can see what’s coming
Bullard was awarded his M.F.A. from Wilkes University, PA. Finishing Line Press published his poetry chapbook, Leviathan, in 2016, and Kattywompus Press published High Pulp, a collection of his flash fiction, in 2017. His work has appeared in publications such as 32 Poems, Green Mountains Review, Rattle, Pleiades, River Styx and Nimrod. He lives in Philadelphia, PA.
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