Little Prophets Everywhere – a poem by Stephanie K. Merrill

Little Prophets Everywhere


Who wants to write a poem about fire?
when you can just build one      stacking the phrases 
in logs      leaving spaces      between      for the breathing.

Either way it's all embers for the art of getting cooked.
Last night my father came to me in a dream. 
He said, "Don't worry about the world. Just keep your own bed warm."

I want to believe The Book of James (William, that is) 
& the upward progression of souls      traveling somewhere widely
among wise spirits      & I want to accept that this body will not survive the journey.

I try to abandon restlessness      to live among the ferns and the mosses
who tell me      over & over      by slow degrees
the few good & glowing truths.
 

Stephanie K. Merrill has poems recently published in The Rise Up Review, Sage Cigarettes Magazine, Feral: A Journal of Poetry and Art, and elsewhere. She has work forthcoming in UCity Review and in Moist Poetry Journal. Stephanie K. Merrill is a Pushcart Prize nominee and a retired high school English teacher. She lives in Austin, Texas.