Work – Toni Fuhrman

Read my short story — “Water Moon” — in the Adelaide Literary Award Anthology: Best of 2017

“Water Moon” was published in the 2017 Winter Issue of Adelaide Literary Magazine.

Eternity Runs Me on a Daily Basis

I made grass grow from dirt in my back yard
been sinner saint bride breathtaking beauty
or at least three out of four
broke all the rules even my own
especially my own
wrote a book bore a child loved a few men
one in particular loved me back
made money bought a house built a fence settled in, then
pulled myself up by the roots planted myself two thousand miles away
in a desert, not for money

every morning I start over
afternoons are hard edged, exhausting
I am soft and pliable in the evening

from time to time I pull my head in, retreat
turtle hiding in plain view
so like someone I thought I knew
when I was a child coming home from school, calling upstairs
mom where are you

I emerge, will myself to go on
stuck to my cumbersome shell
somewhere between bird and reptile

yet even though
I haven’t sized up the ten thousand years between me and that star out there

I’m anchored
to my planner my to do list my
yesterdays and tomorrows and I

won’t look up until I look around check my warranty determine
what parts I can salvage for how long who
is stuck to my gluey substance and who slides off what
words will take hold and release me.

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