Night Pawn

by Kelsey D. Mahaffey

I find myself again, spiraling 
deep underground, teeth
grinding an old dark.

What else to do this time? 

Jack wakes with magic beans &
Jill comes tumbling down. 
It’s too late to change the story.
 
Bruised, I wait for night,
the way the swollen ground waits 
for sun. Patterns moon above
 
hauling light from long-dead stars. 
Waxing, waning—
the cycle always wins.

Tomorrow I’ll dust the ash,
set a new day, pretend
this one’s my savior.

Kelsey D. Mahaffey keeps half her heart in New Orleans and walks the earth barefoot beside three humans and a bow-legged cat. Her work can be seen in Arkansas Review, Pensive: A Global Journal of Spirituality & the Arts, The Sunlight Press, Cumberland River Review, Halfway Down the Stairs, Writers Resist, Eunoia Review and Minerva Rising Press. She is the author of the chapbook, No Fault of Water, forthcoming from Finishing Line Press.