8 February, 2024
Count the bullet holes in the seat cushion slowly—show me
their intricate linguistic pattern near my cheek. Keep the car running.
Keep the radio on. Point me toward the inside of the house
so this won’t result in injury.
Shift into gear without thinking—like something ready to put on
the brake. Imagine we are good company. Imagine we are only in this
for the ride. Never imagine the door is an exit—say so—
KIMBERLY ANN PRIEST is the author of Slaughter the One Bird (Sundress 2021) and the chapbooks Still Life (PANK, 2020), Parrot Flower (Glass 2020), and White Goat Black Sheep (FLP 2018). Her poetry has appeared in several literary journals including The Laurel Review, RiverSedge, and The Berkeley Poetry Review and she is a winner of the 2019 Heartland Poetry Prize in the New Poetry from the Midwest anthology by New American Press. A former book reviewer for NewPages and intern with Sundress Publications, she is currently Assistant Professor of First-Year Writing at Michigan State University, and an associate poetry editor for the Nimrod International Journal of Prose and Poetry and Embody reader for The Maine Review.