Megan Peak
Emptying Point
After Vallejo
I will die at the mouth of a river, light-skewed
and fickle. The day—another come-to, get-out, gone-girl,
hard and birdless. With your bright chrysanthemum
at the back of my throat, the flower’s yellow
tongues squealing, I will die at the mouth of
this river, staining it like I stain most things.
Quiet in the morning, oneiric rill—each swell
will be branded in blaze and fulgor: a red sheen.
Beloved, I am dead. At the bottom of some river.
They didn’t find me for a few days. They had questions,
wanted answers. There were no rocks, no weights.
A man was bowfishing by moonlight when his arrow struck
my body. The water stained deep. Did you know?
I loved you so much I didn’t need any stones.
Megan Peak currently lives in Columbus, Ohio and is enrolled in The Ohio State University’s MFA program. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in A cappella Zoo, The Bakery, The Boiler Journal, Four Way Review, DIAGRAM, PANK, Pleiades, and Stone Highway Review.
Return to September 2013 Edition
After Vallejo
I will die at the mouth of a river, light-skewed
and fickle. The day—another come-to, get-out, gone-girl,
hard and birdless. With your bright chrysanthemum
at the back of my throat, the flower’s yellow
tongues squealing, I will die at the mouth of
this river, staining it like I stain most things.
Quiet in the morning, oneiric rill—each swell
will be branded in blaze and fulgor: a red sheen.
Beloved, I am dead. At the bottom of some river.
They didn’t find me for a few days. They had questions,
wanted answers. There were no rocks, no weights.
A man was bowfishing by moonlight when his arrow struck
my body. The water stained deep. Did you know?
I loved you so much I didn’t need any stones.
Megan Peak currently lives in Columbus, Ohio and is enrolled in The Ohio State University’s MFA program. Her work has been published or is forthcoming in A cappella Zoo, The Bakery, The Boiler Journal, Four Way Review, DIAGRAM, PANK, Pleiades, and Stone Highway Review.
Return to September 2013 Edition