Samantha R. Sharp | Spoons and Leaves
from the kitchen I heard bootheels crushing
fallen leaves in my driveway.
and a spoon slipped through my fingers,
lifting a chime from the floorboards.
my neighbor had come like a rat to gnaw
at the boundary between inside and out.
I cut the power and sunk
my face into shadows in the hall.
a stream of light pierced my eye
through the frosted glass and I shrank.
from the sublime glare of his teeth above me.
the incessant spotlight on his wrist.
all I could do was wait like a roach for a night
that may not arrive till dawn.
he knocks because he knows I listen.
and I listen, unwilling to invite him in
or try to send him away.
so hunched in the dark I suffer his knocking,
both of us caught in the middle
of fallen spoons and leaves.
fallen leaves in my driveway.
and a spoon slipped through my fingers,
lifting a chime from the floorboards.
my neighbor had come like a rat to gnaw
at the boundary between inside and out.
I cut the power and sunk
my face into shadows in the hall.
a stream of light pierced my eye
through the frosted glass and I shrank.
from the sublime glare of his teeth above me.
the incessant spotlight on his wrist.
all I could do was wait like a roach for a night
that may not arrive till dawn.
he knocks because he knows I listen.
and I listen, unwilling to invite him in
or try to send him away.
so hunched in the dark I suffer his knocking,
both of us caught in the middle
of fallen spoons and leaves.
Samantha R. Sharp is a PhD candidate in the Department of Comparative Literature at SUNY Binghamton. Her research interests include ecopoetics, semiotics, and the avant-garde in Eastern Europe. Aside from academics, she serves as the Poetry Editor for Midway Journal. She is currently living in Yerevan, Armenia, but her home is wherever her cats are.
Nuala McEvoy is an English/Irish artist and writer currently living between Germany and Spain. Nuala paints places she has visited using her memory and her imagination. Nuala has had two exhibitions in Münster, Germany, and is currently preparing an exhibition in London.
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nualamcevoy | Instagram | Linktree
x @mcevoy_nuala