the witness employs retrospect
by Shane Neilson
a rarefaction occurs when someone dies,
an unexpected change of direction,
unforeseen weather now inclement or
a sudden increase in pressure:
like chaotic plinking of piano keys,
congealed milk on the kitchen floor,
an autumnal chameleonlike colour change,
a latch falling secretly via cogs too small to fathom,
a piece fragmenting into pieces that
gut out the whole, piercing
skin and vessel and bone, strips of love and whatever else
escaping in that released air,
the imperceptible displacement,
the fractured wound,
a tiny place you look back at.
Since publishing this poem, Shane
Neilson has become one of The Danforth Review's poetry editors.
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