Broken Stronghold with Existential Threat

                                                   James Capozzi

 

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the vacant lot an acre

of tall sunflowers

we wandered among

 

the stalks we heard some

thing draw near

I recall

 

soaring over

roofs of the cul-de-sac

a troop

 

of grey monkeys

come up on

horizon like night

 

then it was night

with the car

windows closed I could not see

 

outside could see only

a mirror of the car’s dark

inside I was blind

 

forced

to stop by what thing

come up on the car

 

I saw it peering in

the window

pressed almost to glass

 

with narrow face

opaque eyes

it spoke without

 

opening the mouth

we cannot

leave the car in the street

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did I wake

it was noon

I was thirstier than ever before

 

the clock on the oven

jumped the tray of snacks

jumped from

 

my hand to the counter

I stepped toward it and

the sun set

 

dizzy with thirst

staring at a glass I held

under the faucet

 

spilling over with water

I shaved a razor

jumped to my throat

 

I recall pitching in

to the street

where the thing

 

of beauteous terror

transpired in sky

before me

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James Capozzi is the author of Country Album (Parlor Press, 2012), which won the New Measure Poetry Prize. Recent work has appeared in Queen Mob’s Teahouse, Chiron Review, and Zone 3. He lives in New Jersey.

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