Deborah-Zenha Adams

SPEAKING HOPE IN STERILE ROOMS

Once
our clock ran
backwards
in a classroom trimmed
with formaldehyde. There
was an explanation for
everything then.
I’ve learned the danger
of certainty, and passed
the boundary of time.

I tell you now: never
trust the logic of a story
moving always forward
or the myth of
mortality. In fairy tales,
value lies
in a moment of magic,
when clocks are mute
and don’t tick-tock threadbare
reality.

When you speak
of dying, I think
of love, raw kisses
stinging with the taste
of blood. Time
is nameless
save for names given
in desperation.

Deborah-Zenha Adams is an award-winning novelist and a certified naturalist. She served as Executive Editor at Oconee Spirit Press for ten years. Her poetry and non-fiction have appeared in streetcake, Glossy News, and Dead Mule, among other places.