We are in a film and it is part horror film and part action film,
but it’s the slow parts, where there’s not a lot of action, and it’s
a slow part, where there’s not a lot of horror, but it’s coming up.
Trust me.
In black and white, I waited for the curtain to go up, I waited for it
to show me the piece of myself I was missing. Sometimes it’s the birds
that break like pool balls off the power line. Sometimes I pour gasoline
all over the fire department truck, light a match, and sprint.
—Published 2nd of January 2023
About the authors
Ron Riekki’s books include Blood/Not Blood Then the Gates (Middle West Press, poetry), My Ancestors are Reindeer Herders and I Am Melting in Extinction (Loyola University Maryland’s Apprentice House Press, hybrid), Posttraumatic (Hoot ‘n’ Waddle, nonfiction), and U.P. (Ghost Road Press, fiction). Right now, Riekki’s listening to Nosaj Thing’s “Blue Hour.”
Sharmila Voorakkara received her MFA from the University of Virginia. Her first collection of poems, Fire Wheel, was published by the University of Akron Press.