Fever
We know dread not gentle. In the air
unfolding fast as light.
Dead bodies pile, turn a nightmare into prayer.
Sheltered we’re going nowhere.
The walls close, space is tight.
We know dread not gentle in the air.
stillness, our disrepair—
lucky despite the thirst for flight.
Dead bodies pile, turn a nightmare into prayer.
hear wilderness beckon, a dare:
take a moment in the bright.
We know dread not gentle, in the air,
The threat, a terror
Carried out of sight.
Dead bodies pile, turn a nightmare into prayer.
How do we survive this
seclusion’s teeth laid bared.
We know dread not gentle. In the air
dead bodies pile. Turn a nightmare into prayer.
Amber Nelson was the co-founder and poetry editor of alice blue review, and the founding editor of alice blue books and shotgun wedding. She is the author of two full-length collections, In Anima: Urgency and The Sexiest Man Alive (Spooky Girlfriend). She is also the author of several chapbooks, most recently First Apocalypse (The Magnificent Field). She lives in Seattle with her partner and two cats.