too busy living
to hit record
I dread the day your
side-mouth impressions
wry as a country song
slip from my ridges
and you
with freckles real or imagined
those teeth so honest
eyes like a lightning strike
a fox’s cackle, wicked
and you
the thinker in profile
long fingers on knowing hands
the whir-click of hidden clockwork
I want to collect
every likeness in my pocket
an expression like coinage
set in copper
what if twenty years gone
you are burnt up
space rock stardust
not even named
not even a ghost.
Diane Callahan strives to capture her sliver of the universe through writing fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. As a developmental editor and ghostplotter, she spends her days shaping stories. You can read her work in Consequence, The Fieldstone Review, Visitant, Cypress, The Sunlight Press, Vita Brevis, The Interpreter’s House, Rust+Moth, and Kissing Dynamite, among others.
Featured Artwork:
Alley Art
Sherry Shahan watches the world and its people from afar; whether on the backstreets of Havana, a squat hotel room in Paris, or a bicycle in bustling Bogota. Her photography has appeared in magazines, newspapers, and literary journals. She holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and taught a creative writing course for UCLA for 10 years.