East Marginal Way
By Samantha Malay
salt marsh riverbend
back porches tilt and slope
shoulder bones
in shirts too large
wingspan of Cooper’s hawk
sun slips from windowsills
down Michigan Street
teriyaki
payday loans
hubcaps
and wild dill
songs of siphoned gas
meatloaf stretched with saltine crumbs
tongues still burnt from last night’s soup
END
Author Bio: Samantha Malay's work recently appeared in Goat's Milk, Shark Reef, and Tinge Magazine, and will soon be published by Five South, Kind Writers, and Soliloquies Anthology. She was born in Berlin, Germany, and grew up in rural northeastern Washington State. A graduate of Seattle University’s sociology program, she is a theatrical wardrobe technician by trade, a mixed-media artist, and a poetry editor in residence at Flying Ketchup Press. Her published words can be found at https://thistleandhasp.wordpress.com.