[Tony Barnstone]

Zero at the Bone

…a tighter Breathing

--Emily Dickinson, “A narrow fellow in the grass”

Somewhere secret, in a sickly cell,
or organ like a peach that browns with rot
or dead-end artery, is my own hell,
a power hidden at the unknown root:
the power to die. I’m powerless to do
anything but percolate and spin
idea-webs, move the body through
the street among the bodies—breathing in
the way a beaten street dog wolfs meat down:
body tensed to fight, eyes watching for
the feral wolf who’s coming to eat him
--or hide inside a room, some walls, a door
as the high-tension wires hum and strain
and the storm whips the windowpanes with rain.


1) Edits in "reason for editing," plus
2) cut the old ending:

I try to count my breaths, 1-2, 3-4
and stay alive until my life is done
--4, 3, 2, 1, then zero at the bone.

3) Changed "Somewhere secret, in a rebel cell," to "sickly cell"--the pun wasn't worth the confusion
4) Restored the rotting peach image line 3 & cut tumorous