QUAKE CIRCLE was published in Sledgehammer Lit.

palm beats skin/ stretched over/ red clay/ skin yields/ to the crack/ of the palm/ of the stick/ of the smack/ here, the anvil/ there, the hammer/ oh, the snare/ what we hear/ we don’t/ always feel/ earth rumbles/ sweet hollow/ tensile steel/ drumming down/ skin supple/ beneath/ a bed/ of rubble

Author’s Note: Taslima Akhter’s heart-wrenching photo of the man and woman who clung to one another as they perished in the collapse of a Bangladeshi garment factory still moves me to tears. I wrote this poem in contemplation of the fragility of the body, the ways in which human life is not protected over profit, and our eternal need for connection.