“there are no beautiful surfaces
without dreadful depths.”
— Susan Mitchell
Our window in the sun has closed,
grown cold beneath lack of touch.
Still, we play at feeling the heat.
I wonder if it is the blindness of illusion
that drives us to continue smashing ourselves
against each other and the darkness,
or the hope that friction will bring a new fire,
a new center to hold us
where we belong.
A.J. Huffman has published thirteen full-length poetry collections, fourteen solo poetry chapbooks and one joint poetry chapbook through various small presses. Her most recent releases, Degeneration (Pink Girl Ink), A Bizarre Burning of Bees (Transcendent Zero Press), and Familiar Illusions (Flutter Press) are now available from their respective publishers. She is a five-time Pushcart Prize nominee, a two-time Best of Net nominee, and has published over 2500 poems in various national and international journals, including Labletter, The James Dickey Review, The Bookends Review, Bone Orchard, Corvus Review, EgoPHobia, and Kritya. She is also the founding editor of Kind of a Hurricane Press. www.kindofahurricanepress.com.
© 2013, A.J. Huffman
Halfway Down the Stairs 