Stacey Gruver
Another Water Main Break
Shira Zaid / Remnants
the thirsty road stole our water again,
snapped pipes like sugarcane and
sucked all sweetness free.
we can't even sieve for leftovers--
we pull up handful after handful
of unsweet earth, cavity after cavity
unfolding underneath us and
we shouldn't be standing on this road
thirsty or not, its body set to crack
like ice over fatal water and what we wouldn't give for that--
to scoop up all the freezings mouthfuls we could want,
agony for your molars and a shock to the gut but
it would be good, feel so good sliding down
Stacey Gruver is a poet and artist who lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland. She is a recipient of the Maryland Individual Artists Award, and her work has appeared in Noble / Gas Qtrly, The Puritan, and other fine publications. Her micro-chapbook Terrible Movies At Top Volume is available at Ghost City Press. She is the co-editor of the late, great nicecage.com. She lives on the web at staceygruver.com.
Shira Zaid is a multimedia artist focusing on poetry, film, photography and movement. She is a sophomore at Smith College studying art history, film and ethics. She is deeply inspired by the points of connection present in all living things. She currently resides in Asheville, North Carolina, where she spends most of her time contemplating that special feeling of infinity most frequently found in art.