EXCERPT

After the ants came

I am not that pounding piano,
the low notes that rattle your teeth.

When the fever hits, you wreck dizzy, slam
the chords like demons, kill one finger after another.

I mark another page because 
I always keep records.

Accuse me of forgetting, of leaving behind—but I learn 
like the tide, steady against the slick sand that sucks your toes deep.

Dizzy, I turn the light on
and wait.

The piano weighs on the ceiling
like my old TV.

Three men couldn’t lift it,
so full of stories.

My teeth hurt again with the music
of heartbeats and shallow breathing.

I learn.

I kiss my shoulder and wait,
leaning against the cool bath tub.

I am the fever, slamming
devil-like into your home.

You still don’t
lock your back door.

You still don’t want anyone
to see.

But it’s alive, all of it, every breath laden with your saliva, 
every invisible footprint in your kitchen. 

And the piano pounds
like mercy.

And I crack open my ribs to show you
what freedom looks like.

NOTES

Poems in this chapbook originally appeared in: Abyss & Apex, Cicada, NonBinary Review, Georgetown Review, scissors & spackle, Thank You For Swallowing, (parenthetical), Otis Nebula, Faerie Magazine, Plath Profiles, and The Boiler.

ABOUT THE POET

E. Kristin Anderson is a poet and glitter enthusiast living mostly at a Starbucks somewhere in Austin, Texas. A Connecticut College alumna with a B.A. in classical studies, Kristin’s work has appeared in many magazines including The Texas Review, The Pinch, Barrelhouse Online, TriQuarterly, and FreezeRay Poetry. She is the editor of Come as You Are, an anthology of writing on 90s pop culture (Anomalous Press) and is the author of nine chapbooks of poetry including Pray Pray Pray: Poems I wrote to Prince in the middle of the night (Porkbelly Press), Fire in the Sky (Grey Book Press), 17 seventeen XVII (Grey Book Press), and Behind, All You’ve Got (Semiperfect Press). Kristin is a poetry reader at Cotton Xenomorph and an editorial assistant at Sugared Water. Once upon a time she worked the night shift at The New Yorker. Find her online at EKristinAnderson.com and on twitter at @ek_anderson.

ABOUT THE COVER ARTIST

Olivia Edvalson is a colorful portrait photographer based in Rochester, New York. 

OTHER BOOKS

17 seventeen XVII (Grey Book Press, 2017)
Acoustic Battery Life (ELJ Publications, January 2016)
Fire in the Sky (Grey Book Press, Winter 2016)
She Witnesses (dancing girl press & studio, May 2016)
Pray, Pray, Pray: Poems I wrote to Prince in the middle of the night (Porkbelly Press, 2015)
17 Days (ELJ Magpies, November 2015)
A Guide for the Practical Abductee (Red Bird Chapbooks, June 2014)