Three Poems by A.J. Huffman

I Blew the Candle Out

because I did not want you

to find me.  I was more

comfortable with the cold

cave I had carved for myself

inside the darkness.  The comforting

sound of your footsteps echoing,

already so familiar with my space

was terrifying, a trespass

I had never imagined.  I was

desperate to erase my footprints,

shining like breadcrumbs set on fire.

You gathered them too eagerly,

your fingers seemingly immune to the burn.

I Wanted Wings

when I laid on the beach

just beyond the house that was still

too definitively yours.  I sank

my toes into the damp sand,

gave myself over to the sinking

feeling of being pulled under. 

The cloudless sky offered no reprieve

for my burning.  I had no doubt

I would be ashes soon,

and I imagined the kiss of evening’s

breeze lifting me—my charred darkness

blending seamlessly into a starless sky.

Higher and higher I would rise,

an arid wave, grateful

for a moment of effortless breathing

before the inevitable crash.

In the Fading Blue of Everything

Your shadow is too big.  I cannot find
the exit.  Door after door,
I knock.  My head against the frames
that cannot fill.  This space
is haunted by a hazel-eyed smile.
Shiny as Hell.  Turned off.
Or maybe against.  My view
stands:  Distorted.  I am
fumbling for nobs.  Though any
handhold will do.  In a sea of lost,
I am queen.  Of the damned?
Or the damnless?  Silver
salt holds the key to my crown.
But inside out is still inside.  And I miss
the light.  And the sight of the waves.
And even your back.

A.J. Huffman has published twelve solo chapbooks and one joint chapbook through various small presses.  Her new poetry collections, Another Blood Jet (Eldritch Press), A Few Bullets Short of Home (mgv2>publishing), Butchery of the Innocent (Scars Publications), Degeneration (Pink Girl Ink) and A Bizarre Burning of Bees (Transcendent Zero Press) are now available from their respective publishers and amazon.com.  She is a four-time Pushcart Prize nominee, a two-time Best of Net nominee, and has published over 2400 poems in various national and international journals, including Labletter, The James Dickey Review, Bone Orchard, EgoPHobia, and Kritya.  She is also the founding editor of Kind of a Hurricane Press.  www.kindofahurricanepress.com.