By: Ryan Collins

Not quite palindrome, not quite perfect English, not iambic anything. Five to one. An unbalanced equation, a location unpositioned. Closed to electrical eyes. Too deep underwater for sunlight to reach, to surface without the body exploding. No signal from the shoulder angel of death. Too many angles makes the baby go blind. One six short of the morning son. Awake later than the snow plows clear the one-ways & before the Sunday morning moon goes unnoticed by early parishioners. Not evil, not possessed by anyone except time. Fallen like a bolt from a passenger jet, a step outside the light of navigational stars.

Ryan Collins is the author of A New American Field Guide & Song Book. He hosts the SPECTRA Reading Series in Rock Island, IL where he lives.