Christine E. Hamm

Corralles, NM

All night quiet squads of geese
stepped through the dark grass,
and the water.

The empty parking lot was filled
with round shadows, and light,
bright and blue

as the feeling of pain in a dream. 
One car was left at the edge, an old
maroon ford,

the passenger’s side door gone.  And
in the backseat, a man and a dog slept,
their breath staining

the windows white. I would like to
say the man was my brother, and the
dog, his golden

retriever. I would like to say he is
warm, in a place where there is still
sleep. When I dream of

my brother, it is always as
                        the ambulance is arriving. 

Christine E. Hamm (she/her), queer & disabled English Professor, social worker and student of ecopoetics, has a PhD in English, and lives in New Jersey. She recently won the Tenth Gate prize from Word Works for her manuscript, Gorilla. She has had work featured in North American Review, Nat Brut, Painted Bride Quarterly and many others. She has published six chapbooks, and several books -- hybrid texts as well as poetry.