Emily Murphy

[I can only write pastorals]

I can only write pastorals
most days trees speak more
than me             my cell phone
added a new filter: “turpentine”

it lays a runny glaze on the pictures
now this shot of a patch of sphagnum
looks like the rubber food I played with
in museums as a kid                  still

I put it on everything                 for a time
my car? turpentine     a gravel trail? turpentine
there is an ecosystem to this and I want to belong
to strain myself off the boiling top

& settle              let the excess run off me
how exhaustion erases a coming dawn
​
if the filter speaks a new language
if seeing draws down illusions

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Emily Murphy is an MA student at The University of New Mexico. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in Collateral, Manzano Mountain Review, Inklette, and Garbanzo, as well as a very talented pigeon delivering hand-rolled poems to upper story apartments. You can follow her on Twitter at @weightsandmeans.