Tiamat
by Joshua Gage
My eyes,
plucked from my skull,
pour out the Euphrates and Tigris.
My ribs,
hewn from my body,
scaffold the heavens,
a temple for the prayers of the earth.
Water
before water was water,
I am salt that spawned serpents
and storms.
Beware.
In my waves sleep dragons.
Joshua Gage is an ornery curmudgeon from Cleveland. His first full-length collection, breaths, is available from VanZeno Press. Intrinsic Night, a collaborative project he wrote with J. E. Stanley, was recently published by Sam’s Dot Publishing. He is a graduate of the Low Residency MFA Program in Creative Writing at Naropa University. He has a penchant for Pendleton shirts, rye whiskey and any poem strong enough to yank the breath out of his lungs. He stomps around Cleveland in a purple bathrobe where he hosts the monthly Deep Cleveland Poetry hour and enjoys the beer at Brew Kettle.
Poem © 2010 Joshua Gage. All other content copyright © 2010 Abyss & Apex Publishing.
Copyrighted by the author unless otherwise noted.
Art Director: Bonnie Brunish