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July 9, 2021

(Fever) (Alleyway) Template

Beth Gordon

Consult the thesaurus of slaughter/consult the thesaurus of weeds/of fluorescent lights and forsythia /the opposite of night is not night. Plagiarize the words of emergency room nurses/       the methodology of fevers and sheets/diagram the sentences of Martha Graham: lamentation/ charred remains. Burn the dictionary of last rites/pursue the ugly flame to the courthouse alley-  way. Choregraph the movements of neighbors who plant bombs/of strangers who plant rows                    of marigolds to frighten mosquitoes away/of children who un-root to the cacophony of bats.

Beth Gordon is a poet, mother and grandmother currently living in Asheville, NC. Her poetry has been published in Passages North, RHINO, EcoTheo Review, Into the Void, Pidgeonholes, SWWIM, Pithead Chapel, and others. Her full-length poetry collection, This Small Machine of Prayer, is forthcoming from Kelsay Books in July 2021 and her chapbook, The Water Cycle, is forthcoming from Variant Literature in November 2021. She is Managing Editor of Feral: A Journal of Poetry and Art,  Assistant Editor of Animal Heart Press, and Grandma of Femme Salve Books. Twitter and Instagram @bethgordonpoet