A.J. Huffman- Three Poems

I Am Submersion

an entity entirely consumed

by my surroundings.  I am not breathing,

but drowning, slowly, and in increments

too small to be perceived from land.

I am silent suicide, incapable of single stroke

directed towards shore.  I am wave,

crashing inside myself, violently,

waiting for residual

calm.

The Road to Shark Road

Unprecedented footpath provides

prehistoric passage, a burning

vision of saline and saliva.  A wash

of unnecessary breath, a triumphless

trail of bubbles leading

nowhere.  Forgotten

in a flash of teeth, scent of wound, fire

flaring in deprivating depths.

Instincts drive body beyond safety

barriers.  Breach!  Internal warning

screams, ignored.  Focus re-falls,

a clever cleaver, right

                                    through the heart

of the only destiny worth the hunt.  Eyes

blank, ass primed, mobile

machination meets baited death.

Bribing Starving Souls

A church down the street is advertising.

First-time attendees get a $50 gift card

to local restaurant, and I wonder

at the logic of this incentive.  Force-feeding

religion to the opportunistic seems counter-

productive to the cause.  Would that money not be

better spent on soup-kitchen meals

for the homeless?  I watch the following Sunday

as a packed parking lot purges a parade

of worshippers in full finery, each hand out

not in introduction, but in acceptance

of payoff.  Their bodies move forward to fill

pews, but their minds have already wandered

to thoughts of potential

desserts.

A.J. Huffman has published eleven solo chapbooks and one joint chapbook through various small presses. Her new poetry collection, Another Blood Jet, is now available from Eldritch Press. She has three more poetry collections forthcoming: A Few Bullets Short of Home from mgv2>publishing, Degeneration from Pink Girl Ink, and A Bizarre Burning of Bees from Transcendent Zero Press. She is a Multiple Pushcart Prize nominee, and has published over 2100 poems in various national and international journals, including Labletter, The James Dickey Review, Bone Orchard, EgoPHobia, and Kritya. She is also the founding editor of Kind of a Hurricane Press. www.kindofahurricanepress.com