When the Monsters Come Out
Nighttime is when the monsters come out,
With their claws and their jaws
That gnash all about.
To the Child Watching His Grandmother Sew
Image: “Seamstress” by Lily Prigioniero. “To the Child Watching His Grandmother Sew” was written by Bradford Kimball for Rattle’s Ekphrastic Challenge, August 2023, and selected as the Editor’s Choice.
Speak
However difficult a door may be to open,
once you find the key it becomes easy.
—Enta Kusakabe
Summer Afternoon
With a bucket of sealant and a spent mop on a slow day,
my father sent Prince McMichael and me to muck the buckled seams
along the carpet rolls of pebbled roofing winter freeze and thaw left leaking.
To a Friend Who Does Not Believe in God
Neither do I, but yesterday, in the hospital,
for two hours, I held the hand of a dying woman—
my friend’s grandmother, 94, barely intelligible,
and in unrelenting pain.