up your cheek
and looks you
in the eye.
1
A stone between
your feet grows
a warm spot
in your hand.
1
Cloud shadows
race over you
peel identity and
drift it away.
1
Birds swarm and
turn in unison
becoming sky
and flashing
back as birds.
1
And yes thunder
is growling
your secret name.
1
In a moment
all the cells of
creation are
bending your way.
~ Harley Elliott
Harley Elliott lives in Salina Kansas. He is the author of ten books of poetry, including Darkness at Each Elbow and Animals That Stand in Dreams (Hanging Loose), and The Monkey of Mulberry Pass and Fugitive Histories (Woodley), as well as a memoir, Loading the Stone (Woodley).
Tyler Sheldon is a graduate student in English at Emporia State University. His poems and articles have appeared in Thorny Locust, I-70 Review, Coal City Review, The Dos Passos Review, and in the anthology To The Stars Through Difficulties (a 2013 Kansas Notable Book). Sheldon is an AWP Intro Journals Award nominee and has been featured on Kansas Public Radio.
William Sheldon lives in Hutchinson, Kansas, where he writes and teaches. His work has appeared widely in little magazines and small press anthologies. He has two books, Retrieving Old Bones (Woodley) and Rain Comes Riding (Mammoth), and a chapbook, Into Distant Grass (Oil Hill). He plays bass for the band The Excuses.
This poem speaks to me this morning. I especially love the last stanza. Thank you, Harley Elliot.
Very nice piece, Harley. Pleasure to read.–Stephen