Lifting my head above a wall to peek at a Drive In Movie, I grab a wire, discovering pain in my fist. As I crawl under a fence to visit cows, my consciousness is pushed down through the top of my head, the pasture forced into a dream. From an ink brush, the Zen master draws the paper’s electricity, but we only see his blank eyes as he pushes through. We only hear the rip.
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Donald Zirilli (he/him) was a James Tate Prize finalist and a nominee for Best of the Net and the Forward Prize. He edited Now Culture and The Rutherford Red Wheelbarrow and judged poetry for the NJ Teen Arts Festival. His poetry was published in The 2River View, Anti- poetry magazine, ART TIMES, Nerve Lantern, Posit, River Styx, and other periodicals and anthologies. He and his wife live in an idyllic corner of New Jersey with two dogs and a cat. His chapbook, Heaven’s Not For You, was published in 2018 by Kelsay Books. zirealism.com