Cliff Saunders
Tripping the Switch
High up in the Andes, I escape
from one body to another.
I know the exact line where,
when I cross, I am somewhere
through a looking glass
in a little white house
with poinsettias out front.
In just eight seconds,
I discover water in a pin.
It’s all orange and bubbly.
It’s becoming dangerous.
I confess to picking a spirit
from the garden like a stone
that could catch fire and loving it
more than a quick charcoal sketch
of a swollen river. I pull waves
of lion’s mane jellyfish
through my brother’s shadow
and close the road to Armageddon
to defy time. I have nothing
to lose save blue coral
and jellybean jars. Looking down
to find the soul of a man
stained by rust in the dust,
I await the pain of estrangement.
from one body to another.
I know the exact line where,
when I cross, I am somewhere
through a looking glass
in a little white house
with poinsettias out front.
In just eight seconds,
I discover water in a pin.
It’s all orange and bubbly.
It’s becoming dangerous.
I confess to picking a spirit
from the garden like a stone
that could catch fire and loving it
more than a quick charcoal sketch
of a swollen river. I pull waves
of lion’s mane jellyfish
through my brother’s shadow
and close the road to Armageddon
to defy time. I have nothing
to lose save blue coral
and jellybean jars. Looking down
to find the soul of a man
stained by rust in the dust,
I await the pain of estrangement.
Biography
Cliff Saunders is the author of several poetry chapbooks, including Mapping the Asphalt Meadows (Slipstream Publications) and This Candescent World (Runaway Spoon Press). His poems have appeared recently in Atlanta Review, Pedestal Magazine, Lullwater Review, Inscape Journal, Vagabond City, The Main Street Rag, and Tipton Poetry Journal. Originally from Massachusetts, he now lives in Myrtle Beach, SC.