a gargoyle skin of stone warding off evil
with granite wings beating away
obsessions small and many Each flap a strike-
slip fault grabbing the land by its upper lip
and pulling its skin across hot coals
steaming out the macerated spirits beneath the mantle
a starfish with arms like a willow god fingers
reaching down just to touch pure
dirt war trophies like dandelion wishes
sea-salt fists like a thick cornfield—
I want to be broken holy.
stitch my lips shut with a tightrope silence
my unsteady taunt sit crouched in dusk atop
tall buildings my many arms gripping
concrete ledges refusing to let me jump
About the Author
Taylor Franson-Thiel is a pushcart nominated poet from Utah now based in DC. She enjoys lifting heavy weights and posting book reviews to Goodreads.
About the Artist
Landis Blair, author and illustrator of Vers le Sud, The Night Tent, and The Envious Siblings: and Other Morbid Nursery Rhymes. Illustrator of the award-winning graphic novel The Hunting Accident: A True Story of Crime and Poetry, written by David Carlson. A Member of The Order of the Good Death. Based out of Chicago, Illinois.
