By Dante Di Stefano

The snails in my dreams radiate stillness. 
The world is a gleam in the eye of 
a dead hog, hung upside down, waiting 
to be gutted by a forlorn butcher.  
 
The older I get, the smaller I feel. 
In a decade, I will be my own son, 
a toddler craning my neck upward  
at a balloon stuck in a skylight. 
 
There’s always an ant under the eyelid 
to ponder. My neighbors all look either  
like Hittite cuneiform or like woodcut  
illustrations of Spinoza’s philosophy.  
 
Sadly, I’m an insomniac dormouse 
eavesdropping on a war report issuing 
through a tiny Victrola in a tongue 
my mother knew in her girlhood.     
 
I sleep inside the smallest stone 
where my words unfold like flowers, 
clasp-knives, star charts, old lawn chairs, 
an origami swan doused with kerosene. 
 
I’m ascending an ivory escalator of doves.  
I browse through bins of malignant toys.  
Tyrants tend not to clip their fingernails. 
All my eyelashes point to heaven. 
Ton Amour Ma Capture by Ernest Williamson III

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Dante Di Stefano is the author of four poetry collections including Ill Angels (2019) and the book-length poem Midwhistle (2023).

ABOUT THE ARTIST

Dr. Ernest Williamson III has published creative work in over 600 journals. Williamson has published poetry in over 200 journals, including The Oklahoma Review, The Roanoke Review, Pamplemousse, formerly known as The Gihon River Review, The Copperfield Review, The Penwood Review, and Wilderness House Literary Review. Some of his visual artwork has appeared in journals such as Columbia: A Journal of Literature and Art, The William & Mary Review, New England Review, The Tulane Review and The Wisconsin Review. Williamson has an M.A. from the University of Memphis and a Ph.D. from Seton Hall University. He lives in Nashville. Learn more here: www.ernestwilliamsoniii.com

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