These poems are published as part of the Amplifying Disabled Voices special section, selected by editors Christopher Heuer, Marlena Chertock, and Gregory Luce.

pain

each a strife or shoulder
             a hurt somewhere
will it break us from
             our flicker of sorrow

maybe your hurt is
            your own, is winter
its splintering hungers
            summer’s flat pall
scent of boxwood
            in the beating heat

sometimes it’s all
             we’ve got
song and sweetly
             sickly hum hurt

we’ve all got what
             we think we own
until ache harangues
             us into absence
body gone out on
             the lonesome road
begging for mercy
            a polished stone

pain (2)

pot of nothing soil
            barren broke back

where even lizards
             hide their slither & chance

solitary seeker
             no sweet spring
             no oasis of possible

not even burble & reedy muck

terrible horizon
             I wander you in sun stasis
 

Sarah Browning is the author of Call Me Yes (FlowerSong Press, forthcoming), Killing Summer (Sibling Rivalry) and Whiskey in the Garden of Eden (The Word Works). Co-curator and co-host of Wild Indigo Poetry, she also teaches with Writers in Progress and coaches writers one-on-one. Co-founding director of Split This Rock, Browning received the Lillian E. Smith Award and fellowships from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities, VCCA, Yaddo, Porches, and Mesa Refuge. She lives in Philadelphia. More: www.sarahbrowning.net

Featured image in this post is, “Lizard on stone” By Andergr – licensed creative commons via Wikimedia Commons.