oculum

Michael Constantine mcconnell

The eye closes again.

One time will be the last,

with some ping-ponging

around the retina, then growing

wings when sleeping organ dreams,

turning to chalk when it wakes

or doesn’t, but sometimes spirits

are whisky, and the devil abounds

in a smile, and the night promises

that it’s always okay to at least

try again, that coffee will tattoo

our tongues black in the morning

as birds lift the sky so high

only mountains can reach it.

Michael Constantine McConnell’s poetry and prose has been featured in such anthologies as The Best of Electric Velocipede, Body and Soul: Narratives of Healing from Ars Medica, Reading Lips and Other Ways to Overcome a Disability, and Solace in So Many Words, by which his essay was nominated for a 2011 Pushcart Prize. Originally from Detroit, Michael is currently a proud resident of San Marcos, Texas, where he is pursuing a doctoral degree in Developmental Education at Texas State University and singing in degenerate Scots-Irish bands after sundown.