November 2012
Poetry
Kismet
by Emily O’Neill
But.
There was an onion browning where my heart should’ve
been,
stir-fried into breakfast. A boy who baked
pies, a bottle of whiskey I finished
in a single sit. I over-salted the soup,
faced a ruined summer. But—gracious
hesitation reverse thrust—costume change
from bow-legged fawn to winged singer.
Walk home from the city line
with knife pressed to my bare thigh:
I dare
the dark to eat me fiercely,
butterzone drunk, grinning,
my glowing teeth
graveyard candles.
But: gifted grace.
I sing sorrow turned
syrup, skinny dip in the chilly Atlantic, drink
tallboys, dance with the bouncer. Flounder. Broken
skin knits together without itch. Scab
flakes off my sudden feathers.
About Emily O’Neill
Emily O’Neill is a proud Jersey girl who tells loud stories in her inside voice because she wants to keep you close. Her most recent work is appearing this fall in Paper Darts, Sugar House Review and FRiGG Magazine, and her poem ‘A Spade, A Spade,’ was a finalist in Gigantic Sequins’ first annual poetry contest, judge by Nick Flynn. She is the poetry editor of Side B Magazine and has a degree in the synesthesia of storytelling from Hampshire College. You can pick her brain at emily-oneill.com.
Related Lesson Plan