“You Sleep Against My Bones” by Jonathan Douglas Dowdle

“Now Is the Hour” by Sarah Walko

You sleep against bones, press against your soul

Until old voices bleed out,

Hold silence by the throat,

Until you can hear the stillness whisper

Down the shout;

You could fashion out bullets of belief

Until a point of view laid bare some kill,

Use the bodies to claim your dominance,

If you need a body bowed for your thrill.

You could twist your heart into the wind,

Just to numb it from the pain of being beat,

But beneath the spike within your palms,

Know you’ll sacrifice being able to feel

A kind touch again.

You can excuse and justify any given fight,

Crack your knuckles against the dawn;

Claim victory to eyes that are blind

That you also fall in the exchange;

You can doll up each expression,

Paper doll every truth,

Make some sort of protection

From the lines of point of view.

But if all life is for sale;

We’re swept beneath winter’s kiss,

Where we numb affection into graves;

Then call our callous: peace and bliss.

Ain’t always easy to face the chill

That presses its body against a dream;

But it asks the sun to come back around,

Instead leaving each vow paper thin;

So leave each ghost to speak its psalm,

Then turn your eyes the other way –

You are the soul you earn,

Or you become the price you pay.

Jonathan Douglas Dowdle was born in Nashua, NH and has traveled throughout the US, he currently resides in South Carolina. Previous works have appeared or are appearing in: Hobo Camp Review, 322 Review, The Opiate, The Right Place At The Write Time, Blue Hour Review, Whimperbang, After The pause, Midnight Lane Boutique, Visitant, Adelaide, Blue Moon, Bitchin’ Kitsch And The Big Windows Review.