A brief narrative interlude Gary Gautier

image: “Stain” by Gary Gautier

A brief narrative interlude
by Gary Gautier
[author’s sites: www.shakemyheadhollow.com; www.garygautier.com] 

Who was I to be working on a trail?
I know nothing of trails. But
I do know one thing. Trees
have no hearts. But
there it was.

A deformity, a fleshy blotch, something
primeval, excessive, root and stem, something
ludicrous, abhorrent, something that shouldn’t be there.

Raging, I tore at the thing,
the thing that could not be a tree, a heart,
that could only be a ghost of a thing, a word,
a high-sounding phrase said and stupidly repeated

(to correct it, I had
no other intent).

My fury opened a thin purple line, a drip,
then a flow, pumping out a silk road
of opulent red, cambering down
the broken skin of bark.

It seemed a thousand years
swept by, countless passings of moon
and stars, blood and bone, in their great cycle.

And the thousand years filled with weird
dreams of life being lived, food trucks
and book shops and dancing under
the steady moon on a small plaza
up high, with lights of a village
below, then of doors opening
downward into something
bottomless deep, then
closing.

I grew thin, I aged as I watched
the slight silky line of red now
trickling across the earth,
now into the earth.

Then the parched earth cracked,
a pain long forgotten pushed
its wobbly head through,
unsure of whether
to lean this way
or that.

I went back to my work
changed and satisfied.

@Gary Gautier

ABOUT US 

Welcome to MasticadoresUSA.

MasticadoresUSA was founded by Juan Re Crivello as part of Gobblers/Masticadores in 2021. Its current editor is Gabriela Marie Milton.

MasticadoresUSA features talented writers of poetry and short prose. We primarily publish writers who write in English, and are based in the USA. However, while the publication language remains English, we also welcome the work of our fellow writers from all over the world.

What do we want to bring to our readers? Edgar Allan Poe once wrote: Poetry is the rhythmical creation of beauty in words. This is what we are committed to bringing to you. And that’s not an easy endeavor. 

SUBMISSIONS GUIDELINES 

If you want to submit, please send your work – poetry and/or short prose – to gabrielamariemilton@gmail.com. In addition to the piece(s), you want to have published, we need your name, and the address of your site. Submit your work as a docx attachment – not in the body of the email. Limit your submission to two pieces.  We do not accept pieces longer than 300 words.

What are the themes that we are looking for? Surprise us!

However, MasticadoresUSA does not publish any work that contains racist, homophobic, sexist, and hate talk of any kind.

Looking forward to your submissions.