Dylan Weir

VILLANELLE FOR THE VICIOUS ADDICTED

for Phillip

His construction paper hung heavy
wet on the walls. The spot still
dripping letters from his fingerpaint.

Art therapy-bullshit twice. Still, we finger painted
self-affirmations, taped to the walls where
his construction paper hung heavy.

Then, code yellow. Phillip’s discharge date.
You haven’t got his meds right. We wept
dripping letters from his fingerpaint.

Sardines packed in the splinter of a window.
Phillip, done with crystal, sent back to the mine.
His construction paper hung heavy,

blocking the doorway, I read what his hands
had said: This is the best day of my life
dripping letters from his fingerpaint.

Phillip, needed safehaven & got sidewalk.
Last words: This is the best day of my life.            So far.
His construction paper hung heavy
dripping letters from his fingerpaint.

 

LIVING WITH THE DEAD
(click to read)

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Dylan Weir is a Chicagoan and MFA candidate in Poetry at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where he teaches creative writing. He has work in (or forthcoming from): Rhino, After Hours, Catch&Release, Cleaver, Mobius, H_NMG_N, The Legendary, Literary Orphans, Melancholy Hyperbole, Red Paint Hill & others. Dylan is Co-Editor of Interviews & Reviews at Devil’s Lake.