Poe was most afraid of being buried alive
by Dana Kinsey
like that essay you stashed in your binder
just as I announced I’d collect them and
I knew you did it because yours was not
sophisticated or crafty and yet your story,
I know, is the Eiffel Tower in a desert
of thirsty cacti because words in single file
can’t be the army needed to speak your truth
that rests like a barbell on your sunken chest
pressed against your heart compressing
your breath because fathers don’t shoot
mothers in front of six-year-olds and yes,
you may have rough drafts and tense issues
but today you’re Edgar Allan and the ink soaked
raven perched on his door frame circles
you in that wooden desk as your body
of work wins the Pulitzer for living.
About the Author
Dana Kinsey is an actor and teacher published in Fledgling Rag, Drunk Monkeys, ONE ART, On the Seawall, Porcupine Literary, Sledgehammer Lit, West Trestle Review, Autumn Sky Poetry Daily, Syncopation Literary Journal, The Pine Cone Review, and Prose Online. Dana's play, WaterRise, was produced at the Gene Frankel Theatre. Her chapbook, Mixtape Venus, is published by I. Giraffe Press. Visit wordsbyDK.com.