Breath & Shadow

chills

by John Thomas Allen

moving through

a whistling cascade

of wet leaves,

the teasing wind robs his

legs of security

under grasping

branches missing

only rope. thinking

in sharp origami,

pieces of a shattered

mirror on copper pavement

littered with pipes

that may have

been his own

rake the shattered

kaleidoscope in a

steaming brain

of his one year old son,

the gentle pressure

of questioning hands—

a wife with eyes ringed

in loving exhaustion,

sleeping on a pulpy

mattress discolored

from burns, and the man

with silver caps for

teeth smiling just like

a biting clock. as a car

arrives at the next light

there will be no more

excuses. later, after

the groceries are

spilled and a headline

is made, a young

man will save it in a

scrapbook in his dorm

knowing his father

cared about only one thing.

John Thomas Allen is a 24 year old poet/film critic who has been inspired by such literary figures as Gabriel Marcel, Franz Wright, and Charles Simic — his work bends toward the surreal and is heavily influenced by Catholic symbolism. He is currently pursuing a Human Services degree. He has also been published in: Ygdrasil: A Journal of the Poetic Arts 2004, dreampeople, The RealEight View, Illiterate Hooligan Press, ThunderSandwich #26, Breath and Shadow, Forever Underground Magazine, Nupenz Online, Poetically Speaking Magazine, Falling Star Magazine, 3 0 Cup Morning, Zygote In My Coffee, dreamvirus, Tipton Poetry Journal, Prism Quarterly, Flutter, Thick With Conviction, Abalone Moon Journal, Adagio Verse Quarterly, Sein Un Werden, Remark Poetry Journal, Censored Poets, Arsenic Lobster Magazine, The Flask Review, The Smoking Poet. He was also nominated for a "Best of the Net" award in poetry for a poem published in Thick With Conviction.

Breath & Shadow

A Journal of Disability Culture and Literature