Night Class

 
Does the weather have you down?

Might I recommend a glass of water?

Might I recommend the love of someone

you don’t? Allow me to suggest

a night class in consciousness.

Please, throw glitter in the piano.

Please, don’t turn around. It’s time

to create a self-portrait. Do you prefer to use

pen or pencil? Remember: people’s eyes

are halfway down their face.

Pen or pencil, it doesn’t matter.

You may use one with each hand,

an icicle between your breasts.

They just invented a kind of glass

stronger than most metals.

They made it by suspending

the combination of things in the air

& using a laser as a spatula to mix it.

Step outside, watch smoke move

slowly through a spiderweb. Leaves

stick to other leaves. Sweat cools

on your face. Your pockets are full

of sugar packets, matchbooks from

other countries. Call to mind the taste

of stamps, the smell of gasoline.

You’ve never felt so bright

& sleepless, raw & clean.


Sarah Huener
Sarah Huener holds degrees from UNC Chapel Hill and Boston University, and was a Robert Pinsky Global Fellow in 2013. Her recent work can be found in Nimrod International Journal, Congeries, New Delta Review, and the Greensboro Review. Sarah reads for INCH and interviews for The Collagist. Her reviews appear or are forthcoming in the North Carolina Literary Review, Chicago Review of Books, and PLUME.