Current
Issue
Volume 12.1
Christopher Brean Murray
—
Curt Missives
Dad wraps his razor in velvet.
Your name is revised by the hydrant’s spray.
Smash the device that distracts you.
Drain the wave of its water.
The van is used to transport berries.
A root conveys the rain.
Reply to the zephyr as if you were an alder.
The passenger admires his needles.
I’m writing to you from a far-off country
where cubes concoct fables
as inquiries flavor air.
Can you recite the ballad of shivered declivities?
Will you extract the rib from the hill?
The tramp cajoles the marmot.
The schooner dreams its hull.
There are days when domes reek of varnish
as newscasts inject their myths.
We found a shattered pulpit in weeds.
The crossing guard waved from the valley.
At any moment, an archetype might arrive
to fling your watch to a gulch.
Rod wore his blazer as the satellite failed.
Jim played bass in the basement.
Who will recover the vanished hour?
Mandolins despise the future.
A river races past the sleeping lynx.
Mountains are rife with myrtle.
We recalled her voice when her name was spoken.
The falcon savors its drift.
Ode to Rain
It rained as I drafted the memo.
An oiled wheel turned. I needed
an image, like rain on forsythia
or an old woodshed battered by rain.
New hours concocted their sonatas
like raindrops striking oil drums
as someone translates scripture
into the vernacular of rain.
Don’s shirt bled dye into his skin
as rain drilled the sunroom’s roof.
Do whales love rain, or do they surface
only after the squall? Zach slept all day
then sat up, realizing he'd left his
laptop in the rain. Will rain affect
the clairvoyant’s powers? Rattle grass
& sassafras crave rain as tool grinders
shun rust. I climbed an oak in the rain
& glimpsed, in the distance, the house
where I was born. Are termites impeded
by rain? Can rain stop an atomic clock?
Someone should write an ode to rain
to remind us where we'd be without rain.
It might depict the destruction of El Dorado
by incessant rains that turn slopes
into mudslides, sweeping residents
into rapids. Whose job is it
to research the rain? Marsh wrens
can predict the precise moment
when rain will fall. Yet
they make no use of this knowledge.
Which Norse god had dominion over rain
& was he loved or feared? The canal
welcomed the gentle rain. The cargo ship
hunkered down as sheets of cold rain
slashed its weathered deck. The volcano
was undeterred by the fresh spring rains.
Christopher Brean Murray’s book, Black Observatory (Milkweed Editions), was chosen by Dana Levin as the winner of the 2022 Jake Adam York Prize and was included on the New York Public Library's list of Best Books of 2023. His chapbook, The Fugitive Lands, is forthcoming from Gasher Press in 2025, and his poems have appeared in American Poetry Review, Copper Nickel, Quarterly West, and other journals. He lives in Houston, TX.
