Bodies Craving Fusion

A cento poem by Charlotte Hamrick

Charlotte Hamrick’s creative writing and photography has been published in a number of literary journals and anthologies, recently including Still: The Journal, Atticus Review, and New World Writing. Her fiction was selected for the Best Small Fictions 2022 anthology. She’s had several literary nominations including the Pushcart Prize, Best of the Net, Best Small Fictions, and Best Microfiction. She is an editor for SugarSugarSalt, The Citron Review, and Reckon Review. She lives in New Orleans with her husband and a menagerie of rescued pets where she sometimes does things other than read and write.

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On a small and lonely planet
traveling through casual space,

a breath, a wind,
a shadow, a phantom.

I’ve been a prophet, I’ve been a fool.
We are not unspectacular things,

we’ve come this far, survived this much.
I did a road trip all over my mind 

and heart
and there you were,

the Mary on Pinto dashboards 
holding her ripe, red heart in her hands.    

I travel without maps, free-style my scripture, 
who knows what kind of creature I will become?

Crushed bodies craving fusion keep us lit, 
scattering all that we think matters.

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Credit in order of appearance:

1. A Brave and Startling Truth by Maya Angelou

2. “Truth”, said a traveller by Stephen Crane

3. Mercy by José Antonio Rodríguez

4. Dead Stars by Ada Limón

5. O Small Sad Ecstasy of Love by Anne Carson

6. Poem Not to Be Read at Your Wedding by Beth Ann Fennelly

7. Exit Strategy by Kazim Ali

8. Exploded Stars by Kamilah Aisha Moon

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