The House Blew away like an umbrella, imploded. I chased it because it was bad luck to be open and inside it. The whole thing smelled like wet poppies (without the high). I crashed but remained uncaptured. Surrounded by so much calm, I nearly sank into a new day that prayed to a false god. The sun fizzled, forgot I was the better poet, tried to burn me with a stare darker than my own language. I spat back bitter disappointment, raised night on my speed dial, had a martini to the tune of a very thankful moon. The Goldfish Have Landed after Out of the Blue by Samy Charnine themselves in a worlds of trouble. Learning to fly!?! Talk about thinking outside of the bowl. Well, that’s all fine and good, but what happens when the clouds and the cat that they stuffed in the glass break out, shatter the less conventional pieces into splinters, build themselves a ladder or maybe a pair of those wings like that kid in the fable, the one that wanted to touch the sun? Then they’ll be right back where they started, in fishbowl fist fight. Only this one will have walls made of air, placing it on a grander scale, a larger shelf, as it were, and they are too new to the concept of heights. They do not understand just how far they have to fall.
1:30 A.M. I am a banana, peel dropped, intentionally to the floor. One long yellow strip arcs back up, accuses me of belonging in the trash can. I flash perfectly curved flesh, an almost [crescent] moon. I wish for fingers to flip off when I fly off the next anonymous hand(le). I count to 10, only make it to 5 before a meteor of a mouth descends, dissolves what is left of my body into night.
A.J. Huffman has published twelve full-length poetry collections, thirteen solo poetry chapbooks and one joint poetry chapbook through various small presses. Her most recent releases, Degeneration (Pink Girl Ink), A Bizarre Burning of Bees (Transcendent Zero Press), and Familiar Illusions (Flutter Press) are now available from their respective publishers. She is a five-time Pushcart Prize nominee, a two-time Best of Net nominee, and has published over 2500 poems in various national and international journals, including Labletter, The James Dickey Review, The Bookends Review, Bone Orchard, Corvus Review, EgoPHobia, and Kritya. She is also the founding editor of Kind of a Hurricane Press. http://www.kindofahurricanepress.com.