Breath & Shadow
Fall 2018 - Vol. 15, Issue 4
"Starbreaker"
written by
Lee Todd Lacks
My left eye and my right ear,
monaural and monocular.
That's all I got, and
that's not enough.
I still go out, though
I can't seem to keep the
world from disappearing,
wear my hood up all the
way for fear of seeming lost.
Can't break down my Hoover cane since
the bungee cords snapped months ago,
like a misfit wizard's staff dispelling
specters of low mobility, harnessing
powers I shouldn't have to split
the ground beneath them.
In this closed circuit of a
neighborhood, all my relations
feel scripted for their protection.
They can never tell how much
I glean without hearing.
I'm a cautionary tale.
No one gets to know.
Don't ask me who they voted for.
Don't tell me there's a storm comin'.
Don't be afraid of the dark, love.
I know the way.
Lee Todd Lacks seeks to blur the distinctions between rants, chants, anecdotes, and anthems. His experience of living with significant vision and hearing deficits often informs his writing and artwork, which have appeared in The Monarch Review, The Quarterday Review, Crack the Spine Anthology, Vine Leaves Literary Journal, Bop Dead City, Liquid Imagination, and elsewhere. In May of 2017, Lee Todd presented selections of his poetry at Stanford University's Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics (CCRMA) in collaboration with a group of multimedia artists from the United States and Romania. In February of 2018, HellBound Books released his fully-illustrated stage play, Trixie and June.