I Dreamed I Was
that was really a little girl. I think
she was supposed to be me, but I had forgotten
her so long she had grown fangs & claws
& emanated unfriendly growls full of devouring intentions,
but it wasn’t me she longed to bite.
(That would have been a hollow victory.) Her eyes
were set firmly on the darkness of the same
past she came from. I could not stare along
with her maintained intensity. I soon grew tired
& blinked (as the living often do). She smiled
maliciously as her color began to fade
back to gray, then black, & she made a point
of consuming herself before I had fully fallen
back into the hostile & surprisingly hungry
embrace of sleep.
___
A.J. Huffman has published eleven solo chapbooks and one joint chapbook through various small presses. Her new poetry collections, Another Blood Jet (Eldritch Press) and A Few Bullets Short of Home are now available from their respective publishers. She has two additional poetry collections forthcoming: Degeneration from Pink Girl Ink, and A Bizarre Burning of Bees from Transcendent Zero Press. She is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, and has published over 2200 poems in various national and international journals, including Labletter, The James Dickey Review, Bone Orchard, EgoPHobia, and Kritya. She is also the founding editor of Kind of a Hurricane Press. www.kindofahurricanepress.com
but it wasn’t me she longed to bite.
(That would have been a hollow victory.) Her eyes
were set firmly on the darkness of the same
past she came from. I could not stare along
with her maintained intensity. I soon grew tired
& blinked (as the living often do). She smiled
maliciously as her color began to fade
back to gray, then black, & she made a point
of consuming herself before I had fully fallen
back into the hostile & surprisingly hungry
embrace of sleep.
___
A.J. Huffman has published eleven solo chapbooks and one joint chapbook through various small presses. Her new poetry collections, Another Blood Jet (Eldritch Press) and A Few Bullets Short of Home are now available from their respective publishers. She has two additional poetry collections forthcoming: Degeneration from Pink Girl Ink, and A Bizarre Burning of Bees from Transcendent Zero Press. She is a three-time Pushcart Prize nominee, and has published over 2200 poems in various national and international journals, including Labletter, The James Dickey Review, Bone Orchard, EgoPHobia, and Kritya. She is also the founding editor of Kind of a Hurricane Press. www.kindofahurricanepress.com
