Paradise

Andy Stallings

I’ve centered my distance

from the afterlife. A request

to articulate what’s multiple

about blunt force trauma

on a highway. She takes

what’s hurt her seriously,

a motion to fan away

excessive heat, to cheer along

the horse of anxiety, saddled

and ready to race. You can

trace the daily altitudes

of jellyfish if you wish.

Depending on how the neon

flashes, our lives represent other

lives. And yet her manner

was so warm, I could not

forget the wildflowers she

spoke of, and which she also,

though years later, scattered

from her pockets as she

walked between beachside

towns. I took the same road

every morning at 10:00 a.m.

for just that reason. 

Andy Stallings lives in Deerfield, MA, where he teaches English at Deerfield Academy. His second collection with Rescue Press, Paradise, will come out in May 2018. He has four young children, and coaches cross country running.