Radical insolence
the stars flaunt their light
though I have called for all the world
to close its eye.
I am in pain. You all
need to stop
what you are doing
I cannot bear it, the earth
spinning on
my shoulders host to an orgy of
candor, life
proceeding
the universe dazzling and
applauding
as if the way I feel means,
in the scheme of things,
little.
Stop.
I could let go. I mean it,
if I were crushed
between heaven and
this
could it hurt
any less? At least then I could
for a moment
hold my own heart
while it breaks.
Don’t push me, damn it, I said
be still
leave me my grief
and look away.

[Poetry by Shannon Connor Winward can be found in Eternal Haunted Summer, Pedestal Magazine, Strange Horizons, Literary Mama, Star*Line, Enchanted Conversation: A Fairy Tale Magazine, and elsewhere.  Shannon recently earned Honorable Mention in the L. Ron Hubbard’s Writers of the Future Contest for short fiction, and as an emerging artist in literature by the Delaware Division of the Arts. Her debut chapbook of literary and speculative poetry, UNDOING WINTER (Finishing Line Press), was released in 2014.  In between writing, parenthood, and other madness, Shannon works to support local artists, and here and there has been familiar with a microphone.  Visit her on the web at http://www.shannonconnorwinward.com.]