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1 " I know cigarettes can kill & wonder why she wants to die. "
― Nick Flynn , Some Ether
2 " Emptying Town"I want to erase your footprintsfrom my walls. Each pillowis thick with your reasons. Omensfill the sidewalk below my window: a womanin a party hat, clingingto a tin-foil balloon. Shadowscreep slowly across the tar, someone yells, "Stop!"and I close my eyes. I can't watchas this town slowly empties, leaving mestrung between bon-voyages, like so many clotheson a line, the white handkerchiefstuck in my throat. You know the way Jesusrips open his shirtto show us his heart, all flaming and thorny,the way he points to it. I'm afraidthe way I'll miss you will be this obvious.I have a friend who everyone warns meis dangerous, he hidesbloody images of Jesusaround my house, for me to findwhen I come home; Jesusbehind the cupboard door, Jesus tuckedinto the mirror. He wants to save mebut we disagree from what. My version of hellis someone ripping open his shirtand saying, Look what I did for you. "
3 " Bag of Mice"I dreamt your suicide notewas scrawled in pencil on a brown paperbag,& in the bag were six baby mice. The bagopened into darkness,smolderingfrom the top down. The mice,huddled at the bottom, scurried the bagacross a shorn field. I stood over it& as the burning reached each carbon letterof what you'd writtenyour voice released into the nightlike a song, & the micegrew wilder. "
4 " Maybe the silence you move throughshaped me, the waya church bell ringing resonateslong after the ear ceases to perceive it,the way waves space themselvesuntil they stop.— Nick Flynn, from “Man Dancing with a Paper Cup,” Some Ether: Poems. (Graywolf Press June 2, 2015) "
