Hi friends! I’m excited to be back for Day 2 of The Sealey Challenge! If you missed Day 1, you can find it here.
If this is your first time hearing about the Sealey Challenge, it was founded by Nicole Sealey in 2016, making this the tenth anniversary. The whole point is to read more poetry during August, with an ultimate goal of reading 31 books in 31 days. Chapbooks, full-lengths, and poetry found online all count. Enjoy the poetry for the beauty of poetry, and you win!
For Day 2 of The Sealey Challenge, I read Emily O’Neill’s collection, A Falling Knife Has No Handle, which demonstrated a lovely use of enjambment with surprising twists in language, image, and idea. It was sharp-tongued, honest, visceral, and sparse. Incredibly powerful work.
Here’s Emily O’Neill’s collection, A Falling Knife Has No Handle.
A Falling Knife Has No Handle by Emily O’Neill – YesYesBooks – 2018 – ISBN-13: 978-1936919628
If you’d like to purchase a copy, you can find it here.
And it wouldn’t be a post by McKenzie Lynn Tozan if I didn’t include some poetry, would it? 😊
IF I LEFT A NOTE IN THE MORNING
IT WOULD READ
I carry keys to half a dozen houses / but no memory
of the walk to yours / oak leaves hissing
under my boots / I’ve kept the roses
carved from grapefruit rinds
no one makes me anything but you
this, some accidental guilt admission
a quail’s egg, no lipstick sticking to you
or your glass / my mouth a proud trick I play
by saying always / what can I offer that might taste new?
when I was wrapping your breakfast
in wax paper I was supposed to be
loving someone else
IN THE TIN, BETRAYERS
(I CALL THEM FISH)
pack them in water / bottle-
nosed in the nets I am / killing
what excess I drown in
glut of used / to loves used to
ladle / clarified butter & call
its fat moonlight / I’m laughing
like I do / at the mattress store
where the seller talks around
my ass / as a problem for sleep
the pressure map / what heat gets
wicked / do we need pillows / frame
& warranty / no one here but us
sees the outline of what still
hooks into my bed / disconnect
at the stomach / how you float
face down / asleep / a raft
I sit on whichever side
& blot out the sea
at home / I sift through
what past is too fixed
to burn / tin of strangers
I once held / thrashing
in my hands / when dragging
a knife / tail to head / the scales
fly as light / to the floor / I loved
them / they spoiled / memory
sealed / key cutting tape
I counted / the whole shoal / a school
of what shone / packed in water
dissolving the bones
ARE YOU IN THE WEEDS
my scalp stained blue
my muumuu / my nonsense
affectations leftover from hippie school
thought I couldn’t survive sustained rage
can’t build a drink from the dregs / of this
my stained blue neck an egret bruise
my banshee sisters, my brother / a lion
or a bleeding hand so why
when I cry into your shoulder does
my family sound / like trash
I bake potatoes twice & they taste
like your mother is still / alive & full of salt
our inherited deaths / the distance between
us & everyone else / the angle of how I fell
into step with you at all / rude fate
pennies bluing in a pocket / remembering
my dad’s Parliaments / hidden behind manila folders
the sherry we drink for your mom
who I will never meet
woman I love because of how close
you still / hold her
& you don’t ask me to forget / my blue-edged mouth
in the morning when I’ve drowned
trying to find my dad
I remember the mountain I stood on
fire tower where / I could see
the world’s ending—death winding
towards my father
on the ground / a hawk
whose scream had vital teeth
are you in the weeds / is there only
tall grass now / do you sometimes hate what
hurt I remind you of / am I too many tickets
too few spoons / dry curaçao & orgeat
married until the whole world is Mai tai & mouth
begging less sweet less / sweet please
my tongue shrivels down my throat
thinking how many cherry / seasons I’ve missed
staring into other eyes / every time I say
I’ll meet you at your house I stop / myself
from saying I’ll meet you at home
because I mean I’ll meet you / at you
I mean it isn’t weird / to buy a steak
or grind a new key / or invite me to stay
until we leave the place to someone else
It’s so nice to reach out to all of you again. I hope you enjoyed this post and will come back for some of the other entries for this month’s challenge. Happy Reading and Happy Poetry!