Blackout

Andrea Sherwood

I lived a year in a small black box

under a barbershop

some nights not even an inch

of moonshine would sit on the windowsill

the room                                purgatory

with no objects no

thing save the thick dark

dark dark

large dark

screaming three a.m. why aren’t you sleeping

are you still breathing
dark

like you could slip from light (or is it life) and no one tells you

no     dark was too loud to keep itself shut

but light     this big quiet light     it could swallow us whole

it could be wiping its lips right now

© Andrea Sherwood

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Andrea Sherwood has been published in Pennsylvania’s Best Emerging Poets, The Allegheny Review, and The Oakland Review. Currently, Andrea is pursuing an MFA in writing at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Andrea is a Western Pennsylvania native.