by Matthew Seger
Tell me how the sheep lie
and if the grass moves in time
with the sweep of the sky
How the ground moans,
when the land gropes
and calls awake as it grows,
those ravenous insensate.
And do they count their currency,
those that live forever, do they suffer miracles
and beg the sun for mercy?
When they breed, are they breathed into?
And are there gardens kept in low countries
where they heap cadavers in tally with the stars,
and mutter to the cosmos pleasantries
while judging temple stones to serve as cairns?
Sing to me when you cannot cry.
Tell me when their fires begin
and how, do they say, they will burn?
Matthew Seger was homeschooled for eight years and spent eight years incarcerated. Most recently, he was the editor-in-chief of Inside News, an inmate run news magazine produced at the Carl Robinson Correctional Institution. Prior to his incarceration, he attended the University of Connecticut and Hunter College where he majored in English literature. His work has been featured in The Olive Tree Review, Hunter’s Lit Review, and Hazlitt. He is currently working on Croatoan, a piece centered on his time in the prison system.