you slipped into your flesh suit, its rosy padding, and zipped it up, little latch throbbing in your throat? A slide of light, sip of mother blood- breath? Until you loosed the pulsing cord to swim into this next world— passage to desire. Incarnate, yielding to succulence and savor—crush of almond marzipan upon the tongue, … Continue reading What Were You, Before
by Judith Montgomery
becomes the only boat. Lays her body flat, bellying black water that sucks below the dock. Her chest a prow, her face the fixed gaze of a figurehead. Steadied against drift, she shivers as her pale ill family clambers in. Stem and stern, they shift from pain to place, wanting not to spill into oblivion. … Continue reading The Ferry Keeper
by Judith Montgomery
After the barely averted disaster—the plane dropping on stuck wings down the thin cliff of cloud— skewing to the airport’s red homing eye before skid— shudder—stop on concrete— after this don’t we clutch the rail, rush the stairs— don’t we drop to our knees & press shaking palms to dirt—grass—asphalt— & kiss the welcoming ground … Continue reading Happiness
by Judith Montgomery
