I want violet ghosts with subatomic magnetism
like the inside of one perfect voicemail.
I want to predict a patchwork of next week
mark it off as a listing of future failures,
my handwriting dripping from it in equal parts
dysfunction and desiccation. I want to want less.
I want to feel like I’m thinking
about inappropriate touching with proper punctuation.
I want to taste the air outside my window,
and wonder if the texture of painted over graffiti
would mirror the breath of last night’s labored dream.

A.J. Huffman has published thirteen full-length poetry collections, fourteen solo poetry chapbooks and one joint poetry chapbook through various small presses. Her most recent releases, The Pyre On Which Tomorrow Burns (Scars Publications), Degeneration (Pink Girl Ink), A Bizarre Burning of Bees (Transcendent Zero Press), and Familiar Illusions (Flutter Press) are now available from their respective publishers. She is a five-time Pushcart Prize nominee, a two-time Best of Net nominee, and has published over 2600 poems in various national and international journals, including Labletter, The James Dickey Review, The Bookends Review, Bone Orchard, Corvus Review, EgoPHobia, and Kritya. She is the founding editor of Kind of a Hurricane Press.

Written by: marathonlitreview on July 24, 2018.