January 2021
Bio Note: I attempt to help our Veterans heal as a RN in the Seattle area. In former lives I
taught high school, practiced acupuncture, and managed aquatic centers. I try to be funny for my lovely
kids and wife, but I am mostly arthritic and cranky. I am a co-editor of Gleam: the Journal of the
Cadralor. My second chapbook Mr. Rogers kills fruit flies is now available from Main St Rag.
as i rock my son to sleep
i feel his small hand pat my back
just a few times before he exhales and floats
is he requesting i do the same
to him as i so often do?
is he repeating the action which opens
this bank of stars and twitchfoot mists?
or is he comforting me— this loping beast
laboring in the dark?
writer’s bio
my outside always blurs sepia—
fades duochrome on 1960s television
my actions write orders in pools—
drinking compulsories in audible gulps
my sex wears a burnt track on my hands—
on her night-cooled back
my talk swallows the skipjack
before it is threaded on a hook
my jokes rattle the cage (and what is held inside)
but do not pick locks
i want my words to scrape years of silt off silence—
to rub patina off the roof of my mouth
but when i read them they are grackle
on powerlines—
zeros in a row
of zeros
©2021 Scott Ferry
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