Mute Project

by Elizabeth Wing

pulling the skull           from the goat carcass

proves nothing this thing alive once     you already knew stealing a flame from the lighthouse
perils the ship
and angers the flame    I am not
seeing

I am pacing the blacktop         for the firefighters        who want to hurt

I wave a signal flare     to the future as if to say

WE WERE ALIVE ONCE    YOU KNEW  ALREADY

goat skull in the backpack        passes through TSA     X-rayed alongside bottle, ibuprofen
a dry field         full of spent matches   in the wind

the birthday candles     won’t light       Wish still on my tongue

and let me tell you what for     let me tell you what it’s for
let me tell you  what

Elizabeth Wing is a writer based in Portland, Oregon, where she recently graduated from Reed College. She currently has work forthcoming with The Washington Square Review, +doc, Feral, ALOCASIA, and Black Mountain Institute. Wing works for the National Park Service as a backcountry trail builder, where, underneath layers of rock and decay, she finds fertile ground.