December 2021
Bio Note: I am just writing too much poetry lately. The muses won’t leave me alone. Will someone tell them to let me sleep? My new book, These Hands of Myrrh, is now available from Kelsay Books. I have no less than 5 mss waiting to be birthed. I moonlight as a RN in the Seattle area and try to be the best father I can be. You can find more of my work at Ferrypoetry.com.
i will need to
learn the language of spiders
stop fearing my son will die
in his sleep
keep the wide sky and all the water
in my cracked chest
be kind when i am scared my lord
be kind when i am angry
quiet the shaking in all phases of the
vengeful moon
the apocalypse is how i bite off
my family’s fingers as i smile and cough
if i can’t master myself the world is lost—
a turtle mauled by time by each clicking ant
if i can’t still this howling the spiders
will try to silence me in my bed
both light and dark
have their webs
i will try to talk them out of it
i will speak through the vents
i will need to
learn the language of spiders
tell them i am dry already
tell them i am dry
there are two worlds
one manifest—stoplights flags words
and jails on the vast fir-rooted earth
and each heavy tear of the brackish flood
one unmanifest—in the hollow of things
where crows and snow crabs and harvestmen
spiders stretch through
(children can see it before they are taught
they cannot / most of us won’t know it until
the line on the monitor rests)
but sometimes when the afternoon light slants
over the cedars—the golden ghost reaches
out to be witnessed—
a testament to the jeweled ether inside mass
a promise that each unwrapping is a release—
each death a dive back in
what if
instead of my face
pictured on my id badge
it was my transparent feet
and everyone could see what i had to walk
through to get here—a map of clouded bruises
and pale suns rising up the arches?
what if it was my mirrored hands
of spot and pearl reflecting all
whom i have touched—a betrayal
a prayer?
what if it was my heart—
tired meat-hollow laboring through
crystal ribs—trying to hold it all in
while spitting?
©2021 Scott Ferry
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