local_library The Main Verb

by Alec Hershman

Published in Issue No. 269 ~ October, 2019

Peters til you dip the quill,

or restore the chin with air

lifting off the violin

 

cradle. In listen, dip,

rejoice, I don’t so much abstain

as pace myself.

 

I hear teeth in the tree, unwinding

a nut. I don’t so much

rejoice as put comfort

 

back that I take in me first.

The heart, assisted, grows

weary of the black & white

 

of activated flags in the fascia’s

Go. Only metaphors, leaving

one loaf of bread to head for another,

 

can sustain us, I hear

one note say to the next.

And believe them; believe me; eat.

 

 

account_box More About

Alec Hershman is the author of Permanent and Wonderful Storage (Seven Kitchens Press, 2019), winner of the Robin Becker Chapbook Prize and The Egg Goes Under (Seven Kitchens Press, 2017). He has received awards from the KHN Center for the Arts, The Jentel Foundation, Playa, The Virginia Creative Center for the Arts, and The Institute for Sustainable Living, Art, and Natural Design. He lives in Michigan where he teaches writing and literature to college students. You can learn more at alechershmanpoetry.com.