MARY BUCHINGER

★ ★ ★ ★

POETRY

I lay me down to sleep

Each night
I split the brain pan

separating eye hole
from eye hole

and begin the scraping
of interiors

knuckling matter out
from each indent and curve

I scour and burnish the bone
prepare to eat dreams

from my beautiful
clean bowl.

Evil Sonnet

Give it horns
Give it hooves
Make it oily
Make it ooze
Call it other
Call it odd
Give it warts
Give it guns
Make it black
Make it brown
Call it her
Call it they
Never we
Never me

Mary Buchinger, author of two collections of poetry, Aerialist (2015) and Roomful of Sparrows (2008), holds a doctorate in applied linguistics; she is President of the New England Poetry Club and Professor of English and Communication Studies at MCPHS University in Boston. Her work has appeared in AGNI, Gargoyle, Nimrod, PANK, Salamander, The Massachusetts Review, and elsewhere.