TORY ADKISSON

Memento Mori

for Richie


Our bodies met between 
two loose pages of the Bible.

We came to bleed for a higher 
power: God in the stars, a satellite.

Both glimmered with the same
promise, the promise of ascension.
We raised our pistols to the stratosphere, 
 
removed our yarmulkes. Wrapped 
our tongues in barbed wire.

Every bone crumbling inside us
recasts itself in fire. 
 
To face a future suspended 
from the rafters, wings 
splayed open like a question, 
 
a little blood in our mouths
tells us we’re alive.
 


105  The Paris-American

Tory Adkisson was born in West Covina and grew up in the California High Desert. His poems have appeared widely in such journals as Third Coast, Linebreak, Quarterly West, Mid-American Review, Los Angeles Review, 32 Poems, Best New Poets 2012, and elsewhere. He holds an MFA in creative writing from The Ohio State University, and currently lives in the San Francisco Bay Area where he is at work on his first collection of poems.

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   Next week's poet:

 Karissa Morton