Tilt, Literary Notes V2:E1


- Verity
-
by Susan Culver

She must have been born again
at the station, not the port,

because no one's ever really been
saved on an airplane, though plenty are lost

at sea and there's that lonely way about her
that screams yellow vinyl seats,

well worn copies of yesterday's Today
that screams: I've spent every first hour

of the rest of my life kissing anyone else
goodbye and all I've got to show for it

is a bitten lip, a random memory.
And she must have been born again

at the platform, not the dock,
because no one really comes back

from the horizon and there's that slim and willing
edge to her, the well scheduled blinking

and all those little foreign words: negotiate,
assemble. She knows to step off somewhere

between the opening bell and another name
scrawled along the side; somewhere between

when he lets off his brakes and every friendly face
has faded, settled somewhere, safe for the ride.

Susan Culver lives in Colorado and is the editor of Lily. Her poems and short stories have been published in a number of journals including Half Drunk Muse, InkPot, Ghoti and LauraHird. Her first poetry collection, All the Ways We Could Have Met, is available from online bookstores including Lulu, Amazon and Barnes & Noble. More info.

home