Mumble my name over static
and I’ll never charge you a cover
to get into my heart. All my X’s
have wings and they flew
right past my head wild as flags,
shining, cold, and raw, while I could only
walk away. I’ll tell you
what institution I’m from if you
tell me what grows from the dirt
of bad luck. When it comes to making
mistakes, when it comes to loss,
I was a prodigy, honest and broken,
tonguing words like they were love,
running out of room for all
the memories I needed to forget.
Mary Timony (October 17, 1970 – ) is a DC-born singer-songwriter who has released 17 albums with such bands as ExHex, Wild Flag, Autoclave, and Helium, as well as performing and recording as a solo artist. She sings, and plays guitar, keyboards, and viola.
CL Bledsoe is the assistant editor for The Dead Mule and author of fourteen books, most recently the poetry collection Trashcans in Love and the flash fiction collection Ray's Sea World, both released in 2016 from Ghoti Fish Press. He lives in northern Virginia with his daughter.
Michael Gushue is co-publisher of the nanopress Poetry Mutual, and co-curator of Poetry at the Watergate. His most recent book is I Never Promised You a Sea Monkey (Editorial Pretzelcoatl, 2017), a collaboration with CL Bledsoe. His other books are the chapbooks Pachinko Mouth (Plan B Press, 2013), Conrad (Souvenir Spoon Books, 2010), and Gathering Down Women (Pudding House Press, 2007). His satirical advice column, with CL Bledsoe, How To Even, can be found at: https://medium.com/@howtoeven/. To read more by this author: Michael Gushue: Fall 2005; Michael Gushue: DC Places Issue; Michael Gushue: Audio Issue.