Another Dream About My Mother

by Stephanie K. Merrill

You know too much to stay
too long even in my sleep.
Like Kassandra you’ve seen enough.
No one will hear you now.
The tornado black sky is coming down.
Kansas storms appointed like ancient vestals
keep raging their truths for the earth.
In the end we’re all being chased,
smelling like fire, trying to keep our souls full
while overhead the star of the Great Dog,
Sirius, bows to you.

Stephanie K. Merrill (she/her) is a retired high school English teacher. She has works published in a variety of literary magazines including One Art, Feral: A Journal of Poetry and Art, UCity Review, and Trampoline Poetry. She is a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominee. Her debut collection, Finding the Heart, is forthcoming from Fernwood Press. She lives in Austin, Texas.