Having breathed the invisible glass
\nhaving forfeited my gas mask, last chance
\nbefore the sea levels everything
\nin its way\u2014killing it with contrast<\/p>\n
To cough up an excuse, a vow, a word for how
\neyes are still the vulnerable vowels
\nthrough which slip a soul: sound fury burning salt and me
\nnot getting any of it down: the un-crying shame<\/p>\n
Of a beached whale bathed in wailing gulls, Lines cast out from tired poems and tied to lime If broken, call me a liar. If bleeding, call me Ishmael. Where is the grain of truth in these fool\u2019s gold waves\u2014 When they come you set the island on fire With my own eyes, and only my own eyes And I\u2019m banking on the former and I\u2019m drowning Adrian Silbernagel<\/strong>‘s work has been published in\u00a0The Columbia Review<\/i>,\u00a0Rufous City Review<\/i>,\u00a0Painted Bride Quarterly<\/i>, Fruita Pulp, Two Hawks Quarterly,<\/i>\u00a0and elsewhere. Visit his website:\u00a0www.adriansilbernagel.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Having breathed the invisible glass having forfeited my gas mask, last chance before the sea levels everything in its way\u2014killing it with contrast To cough up an excuse, a vow, a word for how eyes are still the vulnerable vowels<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":384,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[9926],"tags":[21996],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/384"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1927,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions\/1927"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libblogs.luc.edu\/requited\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nlittle Sally selling seashells by the sea-corpse
\nin the dream I lost my voice
\nscreaming Has anyone seen this pearl?<\/em><\/p>\n
\nstones too fragile to make a dent
\nin anything, get wasted on this window,
\nshattered on that heart.<\/p>\n
\nIf god\u2019s blade dulls, if gunmetal blue rivers
\nnever lap crimson forth, would not even Moses slit his
\nto prove the Nile sentient?<\/p>\n
\nthese days that find you waiting on the Furies
\nto sweep down and disperse
\nyour silver lining into acid-black dusk?<\/p>\n
\nwith your glory-torch: a fist-full of words
\nmy photo cloned and posted
\nall across the flaming hillside\u2014I saw it<\/p>\n
\nknow how many oil spills I counted on
\nthat quiet drive, which, because circle, felt endless.
\nFeelings are toxic or they\u2019re nothing<\/p>\n
\non the shore. If some secrets aren\u2019t lies
\nif confessions can be true
\nI\u2019d slay I\u2019d for you.<\/p>\n