How I Learned to Fly
A difference in pressure,
penetrating breath and the weather
system. G-force, lift-off—
cities bleed, melt
into dark comets, cracking
the spine of logic. Once, pitching
down, in free-fall of third-degree
burn, I was paint peeling, warped floor
boards after flood. To escape,
force generated
straight climbing flight
where lift is less than the metal dragging—
I had to exist.
I had come to
the casual, daily progression
of his hands, skin pulled
from the bag of roaming. The fuselage
of body, the angle of my ascent,
inversion, throttle.
Suburbia
stars on my tongue and lone bellowing
wolf behind eyes, i sleep without
support on a mattress dipped with wear. Days
move my feet, open envelopes stuffed
with heartbeats of the dead. a stone free
of gravity falls up into ruptured
night, an aluminum can released
into space. it's all a mess, this life of rubber
gloves. none of us touches the terrible gift
of proximity. the noose of our unshared
history. in a city, people are pouring
into streets, taking back darkness, while we slip
between cracks, regiments of minivans playing
the lottery. neighbors' houses staring vacant
eyed, cigarette butts on the asphalt, our rainbows
of motor oil in the street. i speak in tongues
of echoes to people who do not listen.
so many weary lies. the bees are dying, the flat
horizon, an atomic bomb in my cup. eventually,
even weeds stop coming back.
Terri Muuss’ poetry has appeared in dozens of journals and anthologies and been nominated twice for a Pushcart. She is the author of Over Exposed (2013) and the one-woman show Anatomy of a Doll, named “Best Theatre: Critics’ Pick of the Week” by the New York Daily News and performed throughout the US and Canada since 1998. Muuss also co-edited Grabbing the Apple (2016), an anthology of New York women poets. As a director, actor, author and licensed social worker, Muuss specializes in the use of the arts as a healing mechanism for trauma survivors. Muuss frequently speaks, performs and runs workshops at colleges and conferences around the country. www.terrimuuss.com