Sarah Stickney

Sinkhole: Future

Vultures sitting on the shot tower
leer over the sinkhole’s plastic perimeter:
local abyss. Workers warm their hands
in the whoosh of flame they’ve set
in a steel drum as the trees
cut off the last oxygen to their leaves.
Oh, it’s better than freezing to death,
doesn’t hurt. The men sometimes attach
a great claw to the crane and lower it.
The sinkhole has no end
of appetite. Sometimes they tie on
a wrecking ball and let it swing.
The sinkhole knows about the future,
but won’t tell. Occasionally,
looking down at it, I want
to sleep naked for old time’s
sake–and time is the oldest—
remembering how slight
is this skin that can be stroked,
or soaped and wet by water,
before it thins and breaks.

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Sarah Stickney's poems have appeared in journals such as Crazyhorse, Massachusetts Review, Forklift Ohio, Painted Bride Quarterly, Rhino, Bateau, B O D Y and others. Her manuscript Portico was selected by Thomas Lux as 2016 winner of Emrys Press's annual chapbook competition. Stickney translates Italian poetry, and is the Dean of Deep Springs college.