Three Poems by A.J. Huffman

I Dreamed I Was a Seal

and you were a shark,
predatory and prepared
to attack.  I knowingly dove
into your ocean, baiting your teeth.
Neither of us was surprised
when our subsequent contact
turned both our worlds red.



Because There Were Things Missing

Seven sleeping capsules.

His keys.

My heart.  Failure

is what happens outside

the dark.

Pieces of Heat

In this growing, moving softness,

you are a valium.  I swallow

without thought.  You handle like liquid,

coating my mouth in repressed desire.

Like a prism of memory, you tickle,

and I choke on my own

desperation.  Together we have become

a prison of blindness.  No bed remains

unstained by our regret.

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.