new from above/ground press: The State In Which, by Hailey Higdon

The State In Which

Hailey Higdon

$4

March

The damn directions--the fact of hills, curves, can’t quite be mapped. In the blackest minutes I grow more sterile while everyone else is starting to wake up, shaking branches, bugs stick. If this were a situation with a hostage the police would be pointing their guns giving the motion calm down without the action to accompany it. There is a wild rose called lady banks which opens colors patchy but explicit on the fences around.

I woke up to a mirror. It was already March, things were in bloom, I could hear them. I wanted their motion to be bidirectional to me just like when someone says happy birthday to me my instinct is to always want it to be bidirectional, to say, “Happy birthday to you too!”

My professor would call me one of the late bloomers and not because of my small boobs because making progress in a human takes longer than a season. Sometimes producing the overall sound of excitement involves periods of bootless duty to the idea of mortality.

I’ll stop there and describe my reflection. “Wake up,” it says.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press

October 2013

a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Hailey Higdon is from Nashville. She is the author of Packing (Bloof Books, 2012) and How To Grow Almost Everything (Agnes Fox, 2011).  She is friends with everyone and loves everywhere. She currently resides in Snohomish, Washington.

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