for Karen Solie
a storm is blowing in from Paradise —Walter Benjamin
Backward angel, carrying a love/hate mouth
to match the hands, pumping gas on highway asphalt,
your tarry brawn pushing my tongue
across North American language. Diner cheeks,
eyes at sunset, chin half-cut: a sickle
carving out two faces both turned away
from good. Smoke drifting over lowered lids
too tranquil for the sting of rhythm,
every shot a drawl, a question, framed as if
to say what next? History’s a mug’s game,
making moves behind our backs,
but one you’ll play again, for a chance to get clean
of these dead sentences, words and voices
that haunt the canyon, wheels spinning
back to catastrophe, all those spectres
blowing silver through the pines.
~
Daniel Fraser is a writer from Hebden Bridge, Yorkshire. His poetry and prose have featured in: LA Review of Books, Aeon, Acumen, The London Magazine, Anthropocene Poetry, and X‑R-A‑Y, among others. His poems and short fiction have both won prizes in The London Magazine annual competitions. His debut poetry pamphlet will be published by ignitionpress in Autumn 2020. Twitter @oubliette_mag. Web http://danieljamesfraserwordpress.com/