The Lighthouse Keeper
The lighthouse keeper kills his mother.
It’s the same old story. I walk the neighborhood,
head bent low with frost. This could be a crate
filled with sea glass. Two poems rubbing against
one another on our porch. I’ve abandoned
one or both, sharpened my longest nail, filed it
to a point, shoveled snow and ash to snort you up
my nose. I’m tired of straddling a white
picket fence. We breakfast on Tab and Tylenol.
You fuck your mother over and over, rattle her
like teeth in your back pocket. I start drawing finches
with black crested tiaras. It’s all in the way
we walk, my friend. Seaweed tied to our wrists.
Naked-eyed I look out to sea. The lighthouse keeper
has stifled her heartbeat finally. The light shines
through blue Siamese eyes, remote enough
for one of us left and still afloat.
This selection comes from Laurie Byro’s collection Luna available from Kelsay Books. Purchase your copy here!
Laurie Byro‘s short stories and poetry have appeared in dozens of presses including: Loch Raven Review, The Literary Review, Triggerfish, Snakeskin, Redactions, and Chaminade Review, among others. In January 2011, Laurie was named one of the “Poets of the Decade” by the IBPC competition for her 2000-2010 work, amassing more awards than any competing poet. Her chapbook The Bird Artists was published in 2009 and Laurie was Poet Laureate of Allendale, NJ from 2009 to 2013. Her work draws on myth and fairytale and her experiences of foreign places in the years she worked as a travel agent. Laurie has been facilitating Circle of Voices, poetry discussion in NJ for over 15 years, currently at the West Milford Township Library where she is Poet in Residence.
Rhiannon Thorne‘s poetry has been published or is forthcoming in Black Warrior Review, Midwest Quarterly, and The Doctor T. J. Eckleburg Review, among others. She is the Managing Editor of cahoodaloodaling and an associate interviewer and a book reviewer atUp the Staircase Quarterly.
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Beautiful writing, beautiful poem! I love the lovely imagery, and I love your writing! 🙂
THANK YOU so much, really pleased, you don’t get to pick them from the book, they do, and that in itself is very interesting. I see that i as trying to be faux sophisticated here, but at the same time. that lighthouse keeper just fascinated me. HE did not kill his mom by the way, but his mom was a character in that book, she leaves his father and gets involved with the lighthouse keeper, it’s a very cool family portrait and i went to Newfoundland, in states we say it differently, but I was like addicted to that part of Canada as a travel agent, went there like 8 times, all in the winter months, and was treated so well.
Reblogged this on chrissiemorrisbrady.
Thank you so much for reposting this and reading me. I travel better in jolly olde than in the US, and of course, love the French Canadians as well. If you haven’t read “the Bird Artist” by H Norman, it’s worth a read, very good writing in my view.
Thank you. It’s on my list.