Crash at Intersection 2 on June 16, 2005
I always thought it would sound like a screaming crunch,
like aluminum cans mashing slowly
in the closing maw of a vicegrip.
Or that the stiff skin of the windshield
would instantly lightning into a network of neurons.
Instead it was a thick metal tap
like two robots high-fiving
and then afterwards, worse than all my expectations,
a jarring gasp of complete silence—
the thin CD skipping in its tray.
Summer Weekends
Kids’ voices filter through the glass
of the back door, losing their edge,
muffled crescendos like distant lightning.
With eyes closed, the sound of sunlit
limbs in glimmering pool water is like
short gusts of silver wind, and there’s
a sticky sound of a stamp peeling:
the cat grooming lazy under the kitchen table
in a rectangle of light.
Devon Neal (he/him) is a Bardstown, KY resident who received a B.A. in Creative Writing from Eastern Kentucky University and an MBA from The University of the Cumberlands. He currently works as a Human Resources Manager in Louisville, KY. His work has been featured in Moss Puppy Magazine, coalitionworks, Sage Cigarettes Magazine, Rough Cut Press, and others.
