Ariel Machell

Questions Without Resolution in the Wake of Bearable Loss

What governs the world?

Imperfectible afternoon. Not unkind summer.
Shadow of water. Musk of dog.

When did the heart become an affliction?

Today, the wind-chimes are an incessant imitation. 
The living skins the dead. Skims. Foam off the lip.

Which way is deathward?

Ariel Machell is a poet from California. She received her MFA in poetry from the University of Oregon and is an Associate Poetry Editor for Northwest Review. Her work has been nominated for Best New Poets, and is published or forthcoming in The McNeese Review, Birdcoat Quarterly, Midway Journal, trampset, The Pinch, Up the Staircase Quarterly, and elsewhere. She currently lives in Los Angeles. You can read more of her work at arielmachell.com.