Size / / /

A universe collided
headlong with ours
and was unintentionally
bruised; such play as
spawn or beer on working
days, or mouth to mouth
with the neighbor boy
ashen gray. Nine months
of pregnancy is ladled
by heaven into flames and
these anticipate street lamps,
and are cannily beautiful and
afraid. They flee at larger light
and we wake and
motion them away, your
feet lifted and I feeding
your beak. What is
the significance, the
use of being sparrows
trapped in passageways?




Charles Bane, Jr. is the American author of The Chapbook (Curbside Splendor, 2011) and Love Poems (Aldrich Press, 2014). The Huffington Post described his work as "not only standing on the shoulders of giants, but shrinking them." The creator of the Meaning Of Poetry Series for The Project Gutenberg Project, he is a current nominee as Poet Laureate of Florida. His website is www.charlesbanejr.com.
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20 Jul 2026

Given Rebecca’s hunger for blood, our hopes being complimentary seemed unlikely, yet Auntie Regina’s blessing poured over us both from head to toe. Never before had I felt closer to my sister. The warmth penetrated deeper into our skin, past the second layer into the third. We were burning.
Google means a hundred acres north of town
boots parading through his pulse; he jerks awake mid-throw
Wednesday: Midnight Timetable by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur 
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