TOM LIGHT

Ashland MFA Alum

BLACK TEETH (THE DESTRUCTION OF A CREATIVE SPACE)

The pink lake
God created for me alone
Tiny wind-spawned waves crashing
Incessant static
I need a little chaos to sleep

Levitating on salt
A second skin, barely thicker than water
So I don’t burn in the flickering sun of rolling eight millimeter film
Only the past can be perfect
Why do memories move faster than light?

I remember chewing charcoal here
It’s good for your health
Swallowing charcoal here
It’s good for your guts
Black teeth

Palm trees pixelating in staccato 
Pulling, uprooting from where I painted them in the perfect timeless moment
A world once sprawled infinitely from you
My pink lake, my spearmint, my eucalyptus dream, my Ludens drop twirled by the witch’s split tongue
Breathing in fluorescent powder from exploded cathode ray tubes

A mouth bulging with glass whispers You cannot stay here
Was that we cannot save you?
I knew the only stars left would be the ones shooting through my chest
A mouth bursting blood with a guttural gnashing This is a war!
Like someone drank up every last drop of liquid crystal inside the television
Black teeth

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TOM LIGHT IS A WRITER OF ALL THINGS FROM POETRY TO MYSTERY TO SPECULATIVE FICTION. HE IS THE WINNER OF THE 2010 IUP POETRY SLAM, WAS A REGULAR COMPETITOR AT THE BATTLE BORN POETRY SLAM HELD IN LAS VEGAS FROM 2013-2018, AND IS CURRENTLY WORKING ON HIS FIRST NOVEL STARRING AN EX-PORNSTAR TURNED INVESTIGATOR. HE HOLDS AN MFA FROM ASHLAND UNIVERSITY IN CREATIVE WRITING.