Too Much ___

fill-in-the-blank with me // and no, this isn’t a game of hangman // though // i’ve been hung up on words // since the first time it was quiet // in my head // i could hear a pen drop // i mean // fill in what i’m lacking // i mean // can you pick that up for me? // because too much death has touched these fingertips to revive the dead // and now // i love like an open-casket funeral without the body // what i mean is // i can’t write “broken people find broken people” in one poem // and break down // when someone breaks in this one // the same way a wishbone is not lucky // even, or especially when // i feel it in my bones // the way an unfinished poem is just a fracture // it is only a wish // it is only a wish // it is only _____

Alicia Turner holds an MA in English and is an English Instructor, poet, & storyteller. You can find her jotting down confessional, conversational tidbits of everyday life somewhere in WV. Her work is featured or forthcoming in Voicemail Poems, Luna Luna, Anti-Heroin Chic, Pink Apple Press, Luphyr Magazine, The Expressionist Literary Magazine, and Afterpast Review, among others.