qarrtsiluni

by Sherry Chandler

Perched in the ash, topmost twig,
the oriole, orange as a sweat-drop fallen

from the sun, entices his giant twin, blazing
on the horizon, with hymns of praise.

His cooler cousin, the meadowlark,
bides low in the fence-row brush, saves

his yellow praise for the fully risen star.
Oriole, sun, and meadowlark

from whom all blessings flow:
what is this human urge

to slaughter deity?
Who will summon the day

when these small gods are gone?

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Sherry Chandler’s first full-length poetry collection, Weaving a New Eden, was released by Wind Publications in March 2011. She’s had professional development support from the Kentucky Arts Council and the Kentucky Foundation for Women and the editors of qarrtsiluni nominated her poem “Relics” for a Pushcart Prize. Her work is most recently published in Calyx, The William and Mary Review, and The Cortland Review. She blogs at SherryChandler.com and posts micropoetry as the Bluegrass Poet.

by Sherry Chandler

The titanium screw will still be in my jaw
when I am six months under in my box.
The plastic lens will fall to the back of my skull.

When all my flesh is in some maggot’s maw,
my knucklebones lie scattered like thrown jacks,
the titanium screw will still be in my jaw.

No wrinkles to deface my bony brow,
my sweet brown eyes reduced to shadowed sockets,
the plastic lens will fall to the back of my skull,

my vertebrae laid flat, all in a row
from C1 by the numbers down to coccyx,
the titanium screw will still be in my jaw.

Reduced to bones from head to hammertoe,
my turned up nose a sink-hole, no more lips,
the plastic lens will fall to the back of my skull.

When I have no tongue to squall and yowl,
no tears, no laugh, no song but hollow clack,
the titanium screw will still be in my jaw,
the plastic lens will fall to the back of my skull.

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Sherry Chandler is the author of Dance the Black-Eyed Girl (Finishing Line) and My Will and Testament is On the Desk (FootHills Publishing). She has received support from the Kentucky Arts Council and the Kentucky Foundation for Women. Links to her works can be found on her website.