I live two months
each sleeping hour.
A set of fires burn
my night house.
I cover my eyes, slip slow
into cold
water.
Carrion birds gather
at the vigilant
edge of what I want when
I awaken.
It’s never there, ever.
I age at the searing speed of light.
Carolyn Adams’ poetry and art have appeared in Steam Ticket, Cimarron Review, Evening Street Review, Dissident Voice, and Blueline Magazine, among others. Having authored four chapbooks, her full-length volume is forthcoming from Fernwood Press. She has been twice nominated for both Best of the Net and a Pushcart prize. She is editor and publisher of Red Shoe Press, and volunteers at The Book Corner, a non-profit used bookstore run by the New Friends of The Beaverton City Library.