Bourge-wise Cat

Connecticut, where she studied with poets James Scully and Marilyn Nelson
and was a two-time recipient of the Wallace Stevens Poetry Prize. The
author of Peggy Sue Messed Up, her work has appeared in Rust and Moth,
Anti-Heroin Chic, Clockwise Cat, The Scarecrow Journal, and the Adelaide
Literary Magazine (short-listed for Pushcart nomination), among others. A
2017 transplant to the Twin Cities, Susan’s readings include Barnes and
Noble (Stamford, CT), The Hudson Valley Writers’ Center (NY), Curley’s
Poets (Stamford, CT) Writers Resist (Norwalk Community College),
Confluencia (Palace Theater, Danbury CT), and most recently The Day of
the Dead Poets Slam in Rochester, MN. To pay the bills, Susan is Annual
Fund and Communications Manager for Way to Grow in Minneapolis, a
nonprofit organization committed to closing the educational gap among the
Twin Cities’ most isolated families. More of her work may be found at
www.musepalace.wordpress.com. Her video readings may be seen at:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCDZupms9agckaMAUGe5B7yA?view
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Enola Gay
Put the dark goggles on.
If we fail, there is a pill to take.
Six minutes, and you will be gone.
You won’t know anything.
You won’t talk to the enemy.
The sun’s red hull invades the horizon.
It is time to deliver the physicist’s nightmare—
The brightest and hottest thing since creation.
Do not look at the source of fierce light.
Cold math is our new co-pilot.
Then, a lead taste in the mouth,
A crackling of the jaw—
Quantum artifacts embed in my fillings,
Pass through flesh.
They could be seen, felt, tasted.
Micro-clots of seared blood in my veins.
My god, look at that son of a bitch go.