Bleshyoo
By Shawn Reese
I am a dark & stormy night.
I am raining, throwing myself
at my typewriter, hoping
to find something there
I couldn't in a bible. Words
hunched & screaming in lines
like good people off to hell.
Can I start a sentence with
In the beginning God created
the heaven and the earth? My mind
has knotted itself into a fist,
is beating at my skull. I see letter g's
that look like fish hooks. Letter t's
that remind me I'm not such
a good Christian these days.
I am slipping, I am yellowed
at the corners, where God
no longer bleeds from my fingers.
Manuscripts dead & lying
on a table, curled into
fetal positions, I am lying
right there with them. Can I start
a sentence with I am?
I am raining, throwing myself
at my typewriter, hoping
to find something there
I couldn't in a bible. Words
hunched & screaming in lines
like good people off to hell.
Can I start a sentence with
In the beginning God created
the heaven and the earth? My mind
has knotted itself into a fist,
is beating at my skull. I see letter g's
that look like fish hooks. Letter t's
that remind me I'm not such
a good Christian these days.
I am slipping, I am yellowed
at the corners, where God
no longer bleeds from my fingers.
Manuscripts dead & lying
on a table, curled into
fetal positions, I am lying
right there with them. Can I start
a sentence with I am?
From the Editor
There were a lot of wonderful submissions, and I spent more time than what was probably necessary trying to decide which one was worthy of being “Editor’s Choice”. I choose “Bleshyoo” by Shawn Reese because it spoke to me as a writer; it was a story within a poem that I could relate to. The imagery and structure were strong and I felt as if I were the one speaking and not the author. I loved it, I simply loved it.