Time Under Tension
by Timothy Nolan
You think if twenty or more
can scamper around the square
ringed in hidden profits,
you should want more from the grass.
New ground for the electric past.
Or should you proceed with dancing on air?
Please mind the snaps
when you think of me
or my lichen eyes,
mouth you should forget (but how?)
You might well consume
those offensive goons
chomp-chomp, their far
flung facts dressed
as dirty little promises.
Make yourself choke them all right down.
You won’t taste a grain of shame
until you carve me
from your chest.
Timothy Nolan (he/him) is a writer and visual artist living in Idyllwild and Palm Springs, California. He has exhibited extensively for three decades, and his work is in the collections of the DeYoung Museum of Art in San Francisco and the Portland Art Museum in Oregon. He’s been a fellow at Yaddo, Ucross, and Djerassi. His poems appear in The Rumpus, The Hudson Review, Sonora Review, and Pangyrus, among others.
Picture Credit: Timothy Nolan
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