Simone Muench & Dean Rader

In dark accidents the mind’s sufficient grace

In dark accidents the mind’s sufficient grace

is like the moment in a song when

the cello rows in on its tiny boat

of light. We need a word for survival

in nerve time, in cell time, before the world

limps off with our belongings, before our

lips are sewn shut, and we are sentenced for

pulling back the black curtains of history.

The past has rinsed off the apophantic

and slipped into the to-be-able-to-be.

Its nails are painted, its knives are oiled

as it warriors up for the apocalyptic

release of dissonant notes through icy

gallows, crafting hymns for the newly condemned.

Though Simone Muench resides in Chicago and Dean Rader is located in San Francisco, they have a forthcoming collaborative book of sonnets titled Suture (Black Lawrence Press, 2017). They will also be editing A Multi-Genre Anthology of Contemporary Collaborative Writing forthcoming from Black Lawrence in Summer 2018.