alchemy

Kevin A. Risner

my body turns into a candle every December / the sun
peeks out of uniform gray / what has remained a constant
for the past month / as dawn arrives / the eight o’clock alarm
sits rattling in my teeth before they set to chatter when I go
outside / run into the backyard / plaster minerals over my body /
a buffer against mosquitos though it isn’t summer / won’t be
for another era / everything about me
drips like just out of an hour-long bath / I
lava everywhere / onto the table onto the floor through
cracks of wood / a caulking of sinew fat and smoke /
what is left of me is food for the birds / there are always
ways to metamorphose / as the sky flicks
into a new frame / as snow puts on its final coat /
one arm first and then the other / always been that way

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Kevin A. Risner is an Ohioan. He is author of DO US A FAVOR, forthcoming from Variant Literature.

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