from OCCASIONAL CHAINSAWS IN THE VALLEY OF ETERNAL SORRY
In a burnt-down bar lot, popcorn kernels grow full stalks from the debris. A bad fire burns elsewhere. I climb on the roof in a nightshirt—sit on the cooling black tiles, cigarette in hand, a home decor magazine flat on my thighs—watch each house face tire. I am tired of advice to paint original wood trim white to brighten a room, freshen a space. What if the interior darkness has something to tell me like the cat in the window at the hardware store where the lights are left on all night—moving her mouth like she is lonely or knows something. When a truck drives by, this whole house shakes.
Gina Keicher is the author of Wilderness Champion (Gold Wake Press, 2014) and two chapbooks—Here is My Adventure I Call it Alone (2015) and Ars Herzogica (forthcoming, 2018)—both from Dancing Girl Press. Recent work appears or is forthcoming in New Delta Review, New South, Poetry Northwest, and Salt Hill.
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