Fallen
I punched an angel
in the face last night
I punched her so hard
she had to lie on the floor with me
I made her
count the floorboards
and listen to how they used to squeak
before my father came in the room
I whispered
“now you know what it’s like for
light to bleed
out of a small crack in the window”
she was silent
just as she was
all through
the empty corridors
of my grade school years
after I brought her some ice
she nursed her wounds
and I turned away from her
as she did me
I put her in the closet
with all the jagged
and meaningless prayers
my mother made me say
she fits nicely
with the old hats
and odd shaped spaces
full of
absolutely nothing
Connie Post’s work has appeared in Slipstream, Comstock Review, 2 River, American Journal of Poetry, River Styx, and Verse Daily. She was the recipient of the Caesura Award, Liakoura Award, and the Crab Creek Poetry Award. Her full-length collections include Floodwater, Prime Meridian, and Between Twilight, which was a finalist for the 2023 Best Book Awards and the International Book Award. Her 2023 chapbook, Broken Metronome, was a finalist for six book awards and won the American Fiction award for a chapbook.
