THE GALAXY

The sky is incorrect, you say. Birds fly in the wrong direction. Clouds eat each other & vanish. The treeline folds into itself. Our stained hands sweat against each other. The birds change direction again, this time downward, this time toward us, & you say we don’t have to do this. But the birds keep coming & I have to decide whether or not to leave you here. A beak strikes my eye & my teeth clench. Another & I bite my gums. Another & your hand begins to bleed in mine.

J RIVER HELMS

J River Helms (they/them) has published poetry and prose in Bluestem Magazine, Copper Nickel, DIAGRAM, Fairy Tale Review, New England Review, Phoebe Journal, Redivider, and Sonora Review, among other places. Machines Like Us, their first collection of poetry, was published by Dzanc Books in 2016. J has an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Alabama and lives in Houston, Texas with their partner.