At Eleven
Guerrilla
i.
Imagine total collapse. Bombs of mud plus seed. Egged on, I egg the yard. Rear back & throw like a girl.
ii.
Unmade a green world. Machine of blood & moss. I am not the gardener.
iii.
I felt my resistance wane. Hard sunlight at the window. Hierarchies of rising seas.
iv.
Shortage, abundance. Bone in everything. Clods cling to roots like luggage.
v.
Theft is easy. Hurt this space into wildness. Rake, rake, rake. Edge away, slowly.
vi.
Nothing is clean. Fire heals, but. Familiarity breeds. Seeds don’t cry. Blur into smother, talk dirty.
Erica Goss is the author of Night Court, winner of the 2017 Lyrebird Award from Glass Lyre Press. Her flash essay, “Just a Big Cat,” was one of Creative Nonfiction’s top-read stories for 2021. Recent and upcoming publications include The Georgia Review, Oregon Humanities, Creative Nonfiction, North Dakota Quarterly, Spillway, A-Minor, Redactions, Consequence, The Sunlight Press, The Pedestal, San Pedro River Review, and Critical Read. Erica served as Poet Laureate of Los Gatos, California, from 2013-2016. She lives in Eugene, Oregon, where she teaches, writes and edits the newsletter Sticks & Stones.