{"id":512,"date":"2009-10-03T07:13:20","date_gmt":"2009-10-03T12:13:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fullofcrow.com\/poetry\/?p=512"},"modified":"2009-10-03T07:13:20","modified_gmt":"2009-10-03T12:13:20","slug":"april-michelle-bratten","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/poetry\/2009\/10\/april-michelle-bratten\/","title":{"rendered":"April Michelle Bratten"},"content":{"rendered":"

April Michelle Bratten:\u00a0 Asleep On Magazine Street, Like A Diamond In The Light, Oh, North Dakota
\n<\/em><\/p>\n

Asleep on Magazine Street<\/strong><\/p>\n

I slept hotly,
\nburning on the hind legs of Magazine Street.
\nThe heat rioted my insides,
\nmoving me like a frazzled worm on the concrete.<\/p>\n

I made that road my bed,
\nsprawled out like a white fan,
\nshameless,
\nwaiting for the slow cook of summer.<\/p>\n

I cut the flowers away from their humid homes,
\nand drizzled them over my chest like oils,
\nand while I slept,
\nI turned red and hard.<\/p>\n

I awoke to find a caught dust in my palm,
\nit made an X on my skin,
\ntinted orange, the ends pink,
\nI thought I had been killed.<\/p>\n

There was no wind, no sound,
\nonly the moan of the rusted stairwells,
\nand I grieved with them,
\nas all the footsteps fell away,
\nand spring died in New Orleans<\/span>.
\n
\n
\nLike a Diamond in the Light<\/strong><\/p>\n

I have devoured all endings
\nand soaked the fur
\nuntil it grew soft and clean.
\nI have kept my charms in a bucket
\nslopping them around
\nlike a muddied water.
\nI let the dirt make little cakes
\nand pack into all of my rounded compartments,
\nbut I am still here,
\nlicking up the sick like a wounded dog.<\/p>\n

I have gone mad
\nmaking half-moons
\nin the grass with my big angry lobster hands,
\nbut those holes only refilled,
\nbones stacking
\nlike terrible cages
\ninside the strong root.<\/p>\n

And from this deep pit
\nI saw a swinging girl
\nwith no smile,
\nbut feet that arched like mushrooms.
\nOn each upswing
\nshe studied her pointed white toes
\non the end of the sky.
\nI loved her,
\nknew her sour tastes,
\nand the oils that leaked from her back
\nlike worms,
\nbut her gentle ugly came
\nand smacked to grass,
\nas she removed one foolish rock
\nfrom her pocket.<\/p>\n

She doesn’t swing anymore,
\nbut I can still see her young ponytail
\ntrotting away,
\nher back wet,
\nglinting like a diamond in the light.<\/p>\n

Oh, North Dakota<\/strong><\/p>\n

North Dakota wraps around a body
\nlike a fickle lover.<\/p>\n

She will memorize the lines of your hands,
\nbreathe the soft from your neck,
\nand then steal your mind.<\/p>\n

She will make you believe that she would die for you,
\nbut she knows,<\/p>\n

she knows what she is doing.<\/p>\n

Her trains are rushed through the black of the city,
\nher winter beams like a howl that bares itself at midnight.<\/p>\n

Oh, North Dakota,
\nyou are a woman who undresses herself for the man,
\nquietly, carefully,
\non the tail of an angry wind.<\/p>\n

North Dakota, you have forsaken me,
\nyou know the nakedness of my new body,
\nthe timidity of my bare finger
\nthat stretches the air like a pale star.<\/p>\n

Travelers do not know your cruel wind,
\nnor the tongue that flickers across your snow scarred streets.<\/p>\n

They want to bare their feet,
\ninvade the virginity of your new summer,
\nbut you will grip,
\nyou will strangle and thieve all of them,<\/p>\n

from any human innocence.<\/p>\n

April Michelle Bratten is a writer from North Dakota.\u00a0 She has been published in such places as Prick of the Spindle, BluePrintReview, Sein Und Werden, and Mirrors Magazine, among others.\u00a0 She co-edits the online literary journal<\/span> Up the Staircase.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

April Michelle Bratten:\u00a0 Asleep On Magazine Street, Like A Diamond In The Light, Oh, North Dakota Asleep on Magazine Street I slept hotly, burning on the hind legs of Magazine Street. The heat rioted my insides, moving me like a frazzled worm on the concrete. I made that road my bed, sprawled out like a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-october-2009"],"yoast_head":"\nApril Michelle Bratten - Full Of Crow: Poetry (Archives)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.fullofcrow.com\/poetry\/2009\/10\/april-michelle-bratten\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"April Michelle Bratten - Full Of Crow: Poetry (Archives)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"April Michelle Bratten:\u00a0 Asleep On Magazine Street, Like A Diamond In The Light, Oh, North Dakota Asleep on Magazine Street I slept hotly, burning on the hind legs of Magazine Street. 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