indigestion by RC deWinter

like a needle on an ancient phonograph 
stuttering in an endless groove i hiccup my way 
around a narrow band of pettifoggery 

crunching ugly words like so much stale bread 
then swallowing a gutbucket of bitterness 
my mind striated by indigestible spicules
scraping the thin membrane of sanity

bunyan's slough of despond is a riotous 
carnival of mirth by comparison
guilty of no crime other than being 
who i am somehow condemns me

even knowing i’d plummet into the sea
i’d gladly wear the wings of icarus
to claim a slice of glorious silent freedom



RC deWinter’s poetry is widely anthologized, notably in New York City Haiku (NY Times, 2/2017), easing the edges: a collection of everyday miracles, (Patrick Heath Public Library of Boerne, 11/2021) The Connecticut Shakespeare Festival Anthology (River Bend Bookshop Press, 12/2021), in print: 2River, Event, Gargoyle Magazine, the minnesota review, Night Picnic Journal, Plainsongs, Prairie Schooner, Southword, The Ogham Stone, Twelve Mile Review, York Literary Review among many others and appears in numerous online literary journals.