Sticky by Susan Tepper

If you slice vertically

you will find a heart

dissected in tandem beats

to smear across bread 

my blood and sticky love 

No scope can clarify 

the solitary nature 

of the soul—

why this—

Memory confined to

sensible phrasings

small gestures:

coffee in a pleasant place;

the sun going down

behind a stone church; 

dappled leaves, some fallen

outside plate glass window.

Susan Tepper is the author of nine published books of fiction and poetry. Her two most recent titles are CONFESS (poetry from Cervena Barva Press, 2020) and a road novel WHAT DRIVES MEN (Wilderness House Press, 2019) that was shortlisted at American Book Fest. Other honors and awards include eighteen Pushcart Prize Nominations, a Pulitzer Nomination by Cervena Barva Press for the novel ‘What May Have Been’ (re-written for adaptation as a stage play to open in NY next year), shortlisted in Zoetrope Contest for the Novel (2003), NPR’s Selected Shorts for ‘Deer’ published in American Letters & Commentary (ed. Anna Rabinowitz), Second Place Winner in StorySouth Million Writers Award, Best of 17 Years of Vestal Review and more. Tepper is a native New Yorker. www.susantepper.com