This is from a poem called “The Spark”. I wrote it about an event in Hartford called “Other People’s Poetry”. Held outdoors at the host’s house, I imagined a young woman sitting in her apartment window next door and being inspired by the poems she heard.

You lean in closer, tilt your head,  
So your ear is nearly pressed to the screen  
Like an elderly woman 
Leaning into her iPhone.  

Still, you only hear shards of words.  
“The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame.” 
They rear in front of you, these eyes,  
So monstrous that they are alight with fire.  
They will be with you for days  
Lighting your way with wild rage.   

More snapping. 
A woman sits, 
A man rises to the microphone. 
He reads: “There will be time, there will be time  
To prepare a face to meet the faces that you meet;  
There will be time to murder and create.”  

Murder AND create?  
How can they be in the same line?  

I’d love it if you bought a copy! Here’s the link to purchase it from Amazon!