“Screaming” by Luanne Castle

We all need something to scream into. Void.
Mirror. It’d be a shame to mourn ourselves alone.
                                         - John Sibley Williams
 
On my usual walk now a little less usual
my faceless shadow follows me
because Arizona creates many shadows
searching for solace or belonging
and what’s different today is I yell
over my shoulder at her, elegant and faking
with her elongated legs. It’s that hour
just before the sun begins to shutter
some light at the horizon. I shout to her
that we need to rush home before it’s too late.
I don’t know why it took me so long
to understand how it works. That’s a lie.
When the agave blooms, it begins to die.

Copyright © 2023 Luanne Castle 
All Rights Reserved

Luanne Castle lives in Arizona, next to a wash that wildlife use as a thoroughfare. She has published two full-length poetry collections, Rooted and Winged (Finishing Line Press 2022) and Doll God(Aldrich/Kelsay 2015), which won the New Mexico-Arizona Book Award for Poetry. Kin Types (Finishing Line Press 2017), a chapbook of poetry and flash nonfiction, was a finalist for the Eric Hoffer Award. Luanne’s Pushcart and Best of the Net-nominated poetry and prose have appeared in Copper Nickel, American Journal of Poetry, Pleiades, River Teeth, TAB, Verse Daily, Saranac Review, and other journals.

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Editor: Barbara Harris Leonhard

@BarbaraLeonhar4

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Amazon Best-Selling Author; Three-Penny Memories: A Poetic Memoir (EIF-Experiments in Fiction, 2022); Pushcart Nominee, 2022; Facebook: Barbara Harris Leonhard /barbara.leonhard; Twitter: @BarbaraLeonhar4; Instagram: @meelosmom12; Linked In: ExtraordinarySunshineWeaver

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