Lynn Finger’s poetry has appeared in 8Poems, Perhappened, Twin Pies, Book of Matches, Drunk Monkeys and Not Deer Magazine. Lynn is an editor at Harpy Hybrid Review and works with a group that mentors writers in prison. Follow Lynn on Twitter @sweetfirefly2 and @lynmichf on Instagram.
LYNN FINGER
A LIST OF POSSIBLE FIRST LINES OF POEMS
Comb your hair. There’s a blue taxi waiting.
That night we sang “Jolene” together at the Go-go Pony.
I never told you the elephant knew my name.
The clouds pin down the sunshine.
I open the cedar box, and find your black leather jacket,
the plastic carnations,
and Juno’s leather dog collar
with small brindle hairs caught in the clasp.
Long-legged shadows belong to the deer.
Water doesn’t know it isn’t lighter than air, fears do.
I am in love with a sugar pine. I hold the winged seeds and watch them
spider away in the breeze.
The salamanders sing when the stones
come through the earth,
shivering and raw.