West Trestle Review
  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
    • May 2023
    • March 2023
    • January 2023
    • November 2022
    • September 2022
    • July 2022
    • May 2022
    • March 2022
    • January 2022
    • November 2021
    • September 2021
    • July 2021
    • May 2021
    • March 2021
    • January 2021
    • November 2020
    • September 2020
    • July 2020
  • Cross-Ties
  • Silver Tongue Saturdays
  • About
    • Arrivals & Departures
    • Masthead
    • Submit
    • Join Our Team
    • Archive >
      • Jane Beal
      • Beverly Burch
      • Kathleen Gunton
      • Connie Gutowsky
      • Priscilla Lee
      • Irene Lipshin
  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • Past Issues
    • May 2023
    • March 2023
    • January 2023
    • November 2022
    • September 2022
    • July 2022
    • May 2022
    • March 2022
    • January 2022
    • November 2021
    • September 2021
    • July 2021
    • May 2021
    • March 2021
    • January 2021
    • November 2020
    • September 2020
    • July 2020
  • Cross-Ties
  • Silver Tongue Saturdays
  • About
    • Arrivals & Departures
    • Masthead
    • Submit
    • Join Our Team
    • Archive >
      • Jane Beal
      • Beverly Burch
      • Kathleen Gunton
      • Connie Gutowsky
      • Priscilla Lee
      • Irene Lipshin
Search by typing & pressing enter

YOUR CART

Emily Hockaday

Destruction of the ProtoUniverse on the Morning Commute

Going over the Williamsburg Bridge,
someone smokes crack on the train.
Enduring the acrid smell and the morning sun,
I consider the metal in the subway pole
and the metal in my own blood
and the cosmic explosion
that sent those metals here.
I worry that I started
this destruction. Or the destruction
of something. I learn boundaries
by trying to break them. Is that what I did
with you? Running in the cold dry air
of this season brings the strong taste
of copper into my mouth. I pull coins
from under my tongue and
behind my eyes. When they stop coming,
I give you my teeth. Oh see,
I can’t be trusted with them.
Sept / Oct  2023

Barbara Daniels
Emily Hockaday's second collection In a Body will be out with Harbor Editions in October 2023. Her first collection, Naming the Ghost, a series of poems about parenthood, grief, and chronic illness, came out with Cornerstone Press in 2022. Emily is the author of five chapbooks, most recently Beach Vocabulary from Red Bird Chaps. She tweets @E_Hockaday. 
Art: Cam Pietralunga. Watching Is All on TV. Acrylic on canvas. 
  
Powered by Women