The Sun Rising After You

there was the time
before i knew
the shape that my life
would take
the time before
i first held something
sharp against my
wrist that could
split the skin
separate
my spirit
from my body
the time before
i knew what being lost
was, i mean really
lost, so lost that
they send people
out looking for you
and come up empty
the time when my mother
broke my bones
and insisted
and i believing
somehow
that she still loved me
the time i did my time
and all the time i couldn’t
get back and how this
time would be different
if i could pull through
till morning.

 

Photography © Jennifer Matthews

 

James Diaz is the founding editor of the literary arts & music journal Anti-Heroin Chic. His work has appeared most recently in HIV Here & Now, Foliate Oak, Chronogram, and Sick Lit Magazine. His first book of poems, This Someone I Call Stranger, is forthcoming from Indolent Books (Fall, 2017).

Jennifer Matthews’ poetry has been published in Nepal by Pen Himalaya and locally by the Wilderness Retreat Writers Organization, Midway Journal, The Somerville Times, Ibbetson Street Press and Boston Girl Guide. Jennifer was nominated for a poetry award by the Cambridge Arts Council for her book of Poetry Fairy Tales and Misdemeanors. Her songs have been released nationally and internationally and her photography has been used as covers for a number of Ibbetson Street Press poetry books and has been exhibited at The Middle East Restaurant, 1369 Coffeehouses, Sound Bites Restaurant in Somerville and McLean Hospital.

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