Elena Karina Byrne

INSTRUCTIONS MASK

dark god you are all you are all I have swear only swear I am yours I am yours -Agha Shahid Ali Tell me where I should plant the weed of my next right word, bloom upside-down, when I should bite my lip white and smile, gear-up to be brave. Let a dead man in uniform rest his head on your shoulders, then Tell me the inland riddle only men know now that I am fail-safe for loving stopped on a shiny dime the only downfall of snow reserved for oblivion's backbone. Let loose spices soak for six hours while you smell the sea untangle here, then Tell me the mind's makeshift pact, vowels’ sexual, pleasing shapes climaxing over six days a week, and the waive-our-right to rage a little, leave no stone unturned, gray pebbles of pill bugs murmured in the dirt. Let the blood islands come to you, dragging their blue drift and seamless vacancy, then Tell me the ink we inherit turns the scroll forward a page or two, Rorschach monster where history runs out of name tags, relics its pathological worship mid-sentence, mid-air. Let a vivid anesthetist nurse winter us back to spring, its bright needles and tulip oxygen, then Tell me in the dirty work mix, the sentiment-direction, where to find my spade and glint water angel, my piece-together-compass on the mark, lucky horseshoe crab shape. Let me not be there when they slip, from my pants, the shiny pocket watch of your life, then Tell me again, in tirades, who will bear the rest of the world what you know about the burned-in remedy the belt of new light pulled out across my back to teach me a lesson. Elena Karina Byrne is a teacher, fine artist and full time Regional Director of the Poetry Society of America. She currently runs the poetry reading series at the J. Paul Getty Center where she recently worked as a Poetry Consultant to the Getty Research Institute. Elena is also the Poetry Moderator and Consultant for the Los Angeles Times Book Festival. Nominated six times for a Pushcart Prize, Elena's poems are forthcoming in ten magazines including, The Paris Review, American Poetry Review, The Colorado Review, Prairie Schooner, Painted Bride Quarterly, Solo and Volt. Other recent publications include Poetry, Ploughshares, Denver Quarterly, Nimrod, Antioch Review, Mid American Review, The Virginia Quarterly, and The Anthology of Magazine Verse & Yearbook of American Poetry, among many others. Elena's first book of poems The Flammable Bird is forthcoming from Zoo Press, and she is working on another, Masque, and book of essays entitled Poetry and Insignificance.

Poetrybay seeks fine poetry, reviews, commentary and essays without restriction in form or content, and reserves first electronic copyright to all work published. All rights to published work revert to the author following publication. All Email submissions should be in body of email text.