| ZYGOTE IN MY COFFEE.COM |
| ***BIO*** Donald Illich has published poems in The Iowa Review, Fourteen Hills, and New Zoo Poetry Review. He has poems forthcoming in several journals, including Passages North, Nimrod, LIT, The Sulphur River Literary Review, Plainsongs, CrossConnect Magazine, Xavier Review, and Cold Mountain Review. He works as a writer in Rockville, Maryland. My Web site is www.floatnotswim.com. |
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| © 2006 zygoteinmycoffee Ink. |
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| My Friend Channels a School Portrait of Christ |
| by Donald Illich |
| When I saw the plates of fishes
and stack of loves I knew the jig was up: my best friend was staring like Christ again, too many hours alone with a Sunday school portrait embedding Jesus inside his skin. Turning down wine was a mistake. He shook his blood on the walls, the tablecloths, my books, including the big one he said he’d written. Next, he led me to a sewer drain where he said Larry had been buried, but when he cried “arise” only a rat emerged, blinking, unsure if he was supposed to see his shadow. When he whispered I’d betray him, then locked himself in his apartment, I knew I had to call the police, wait nearby while they brought him in, arrange the murder weapons false evidence, around his home. Maybe he’d snap out of it, buy an amazing lawyer who’d explain possession to a jury that’d make them look for devils under their seats, Mary in their bowls of cereal. If he got the chair I’d bury my gold under a mountain. Dwarves would dig it back up, who know the secrets of coming back again. |
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| Oct. 2006 |
| 68 |