Doug Roy, Midnight Owl, Cut Paper
What I’m Afraid Of *
My veins will all open at once
and blood will bloom with dark dahlias,
each petal edged in frost.
My freezing breath will burn stone
cliffs to nothing but smoke,
and the air above them will never
nourish even a feather of this
mind not borne on wind.
The rising sun will shine through me
as through a minnow’s fin,
and I will sublime like ice
from a shingle, and you will swim
away through every eternity
and never look back.
*Previously published in Brian Jerrold Koester’s collection, Why the Trumpet Is Blue (Silver Bow Publishing, 2026)
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Brian Jerrold Koester
Review by Dave Mehler
Here is my blurb for Brian’s book: Why the Trumpet Is Blue (Silver Bow Publishing, 2026),
Hiding in plain sight, here are Koester’s poems, hopefully in your hands, amidst the rubble of so much merely clever contemporary poetry. Serious, urgent poems offering honest, wryly humorous pleas for meaning in a world without obvious signs of any. This collection speaks in the language of stars and burning; language and imagery which the poet uses to reckon with, deconstruct and reconstruct his past. This dark book proves difficult but rewarding reading—brave and unflinching at what it exposes: the interplay of light and darkness at war over a human soul. I find the book to be a triumph.
I would encourage everyone to go out and get a copy by ordering from your local independent bookstore, or from the link above.