Clock

A steel foot
kicks a sound,

a mouth.

Three red faces
draw their mats
across the voiceless
rocks,

chapped lips rushing
no prayer.

Your memory opens
like the diver’s surfacing lungs.

Each klick is a touch.

william erickson is a living poet. His work appears in Sixth Finch, Heavy Feather, Sprung Formal, Afternoon Visitor, and elsewhere. He is a 2023 Best New Poet nominee, has two chapbooks and another forthcoming, and his debut collection is out in 2024 with April Gloaming. william lives in Washington with his partner and their two dogs in an old house across the street from a large tree.