A Sound in the Eye

This midnight's as thick
as conspirators,
stars secreted
like listening devices
waiting for one breath
to find me out.

In the woodpile
I can't see, a snake
settles where my hand
left a moment's warmth
on a slanting of birch
plunging past white,

its coils
wound tight as bark.
Field mouse, beneath
owl's infrared eyes
and sudden wing thump,
gathers into minutes.

The only flag
is pennant of skunk,
the tail-up streamer
recalling every vengeance
borne on mysteries
of abiding shadows.

High darkness
and a collective of agents,
are pierced by peephole
of a nail-head star,
deities' confederate
beginning revelations

^

Biography

Tom Sheehan operates with his partner, Larry Bucaria, Newwriters.com, helping writers find publishing space. He is co-editor of the double sold-out issue of "A Gathering of Memories, Saugus 1900-2000." He was cited with a 2001 Silver Rose Award for Excellence in the Art of the Short Story by American Renaissance for the Twenty-first Century (ART). His novel, "Vigilantes East," has been issued by Publish America. He won the 2002 nonfiction competition at Eastoftheweb and has been nominated for Pushcart and for inclusion in The Zine Yearbook and E-2-Ink. He has work in/coming in Duct Tape Press, 5_Trope, Literary Potpourri, Fiction Warehouse, Burning Word, Word Riot, Kudzu Monthly (Jun-Jul-Aug), The Paumanok Review, 3amMagazine (serialized novel), Small Spiral Notebook, Eastoftheweb, The Dakota House Journal, Stirring, Comrades, Split Shot, Melange, Eclectica, Clackamas Review, Crab Creek Review, etc.