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This writing was accepted for publication in the 108 page perfect-bound ISSN# / ISBN# issue/book “Desert Bloom” Down in the Dirt, v185 (the July 2021 Issue) Order the paperback book:

Order this writing that appears in the one-of-a-kind anthology Lockdown’s Over the Down in the Dirt May-August 2021 issues collection book		get the 420 page May-August 2021 Down in the Dirt 6" x 9" ISBN# perfect-bound paperback book:

The White Road And The Black River
for Sonya Taaffe

Robert Beveridge

“...and all our yesterdays
have lighted fools
the way to dusty death.”
—Macbeth, V.v.

The smell of my blood changes the longer
this rain pisses down over us, the county,
the state, the country, maybe the world.
“Rain,” you snort. “More like runoff
from the world’s sewers into the Styx.”
Almost unconsciously I raise my finger
to my lips, suck where the splinter was.
Basalt, definite, mixed with copper.
Then go back to this imitation of sculling,
this attempt of ours to guide a boat
over land and ice that has worn
what once were wooden oars
to jagged nubs. All the while
soaked, then more soaked,
until the light of a cheap motel sign
looms in the distance. How we turn
this craft I never thought to ask.

Sleep snaps at our heels like Cerberus
but we fight it. She tastes like rain,
of course, as must I. Our malicious
depraved enzymes crave trace minerals
even as our tongues, palms, waists crave
traces of otherness. I wonder why
your fingerprints feel better
than anyone else’s on my flesh.
Sleep is rare.

Morning, pastries:
all liquids are water,
every conversation
of last night’s rain.
But this pastime only passes
so much. More nails
to pound down, more
revenants to shuttle
across frozen, dusty rivers, always
more back roads that call
to the old ghosts inside us.

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