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dust bunnies
cluster fluff … little ecosystems of lint and flakes, swept up in the static … clinging to the spaces, interstitial …
(ghost turds) or 31-113 synonyms, frog hair
to woolies, according to the WSJ … cosmic matter … unfiltered, colliding with what
shimmers, clogging the efficiency of galaxies … planetoids of consciousness, pulled by forces gravitational … asteroids
of human lust, accumulating particles … reliquaries, concealing histories of greed, attracting havoc, mighty mites
… little houses for stupidities, astronomical
amulet
You gave it to me as protection when I went alone into the field of men, begging every outcome. A magic force against what tramples ground, what wrecks the harvest. A medicine against regret. The divided nature of the self. Obsessions and inconstancy. Cruelty and kindness. Incised metal. Letter of the Futhark, meaning “wild ox,” Teutonic rune of strength to imbue with animal vitality the life I’d chosen. A durable against what might become unendurable, the yoke of it.
Kathleen Hellen's collections include Meet Me at the Bottom, The Only Country Was the Color of My Skin, Umberto’s Night, and two chapbooks, The Girl Who Loved Mothra and Pentimento. Her work has been featured on Poetry Daily and Verse Daily. Her awards include the poetry prize from Washington Writers’ Publishing House and prizes from the H.O.W. Journal and Washington Square Review.
photo: Fukushima Breeze
