2 poems from E. Samples : ‘Aftermath’ & ‘Anxiety Diamond’

Aftermath

I don't open my mouth but impressions slip out;
A steady snowbound mountain peak parting fog
and tidal reflex milling fragments back to sea
I need silence like sunshine needs the dark
Like lonely orbits need interstellar objects
I'm a black hole's forge craving matter;
Shape-shifting cumulous smoke fading in and out
above a hidden valley

Anxiety Diamond

Is it the restless tap dancing shoe pacing back and forth
over wooden thresholds and down vacant chambers
Is it the thundering distance racing toward the crossroads,
miles between quiet and bright constricting
Is it the steady breath of time
swallowing beats until confronted by a drumhead
Is it the subconscious whispering deep
of some shadow-world's center
Is it under constant duress and flame,
numb as the patient pickaxe chisels,
crawling rock wall and bitter earth
until blinding light scratches nothing

Bio: E. Samples is an Applachian cocktail poet; one part West Virginia Mountain Blue ink, two parts Kentucky Bluegrass Black ink, and a generous dash of Tennessee Red-inked Whiskey. She lives in the sweet corn stacks of Southern Indiana. Her writing has appeared or is forthcoming in Still: The Journal, Soliloquies, Abridged, Re-Side, Variant Lit, The Loch Raven Review, Black Bough Poetry, Fevers of the Mind Poets of 2020 Anthology, Crêpe & Penn, The Cabinet of Heed, Lucent Dreaming, Plainsongs, Kissing Dynamite PUNK Anthology, Feral, Capsule Stories, and elsewhere. She's on twitter @emilysamples