“Ticking Mountain Thyme,” “Presently,” and “The Dust I Love”

“Ticking Mountain Thyme,” “Presently,” and “The Dust I Love”

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Ticking Mountain Thyme

Our time is asynchronous

We have a new favorite pharmacy

A ribbon-cutting you can’t miss! It’s

illegal

                                   to feel

the stained glass garden

the neon invitation

you always follow your heart and

it's always wrong

said the red herring herself

as the great blue heron skimmed

the surface, the pages

the book of love is out of print

out of practice, but rest assured

Netflix bought the rights

Presently

As in now or soon?

Or is the hope of an imagined future

all we have?

Evergreens fall

and total my Infinity

Fear and forethought are synonymous

on this peninsula

A lone stone building wears the wind

where I'll either have my wedding reception or

die alone in the tower

blinking at the skyline

like my mother

a cloudless, late summer morning

clutching a cross I abandoned long ago

my other hand in hers

a swollen palm; she never sweat

until now

as in soon

as in an endless echo

across the lake

The Dust I Love

My mom lives in Dubliners

I'm not long for this world

When she stopped saying it

we knew it was true

You're so good at suffering

said my ex

over the buzz of the needle

the bloody sunflower on my arm

I learned from the best

About the Author

Rob Bailey

Rob Bailey earned his MFA from California College of the Arts. He has published in Allegory Ridge and Bridge Eight. He lives with his Shiba Inu in Chicago, where he works at an education non-profit.