[Realpoetik] BRIAN OLIU

[RealPoetik Magazine]

BOSS BATTLE: MY BROTHER WHO CONTROLS THE WEATHER
*
*
* *When I arrived, the music changed—all notes go silent:  the only thing
audible is the hum of a soft rain, constant though we are inside, and for a
moment it is peaceful, something we can sleep through, something that makes
us turn off everything else so we can hear water on windows, on slanted
roofs.  You appear in a flicker, fast strobe first, then slowing to a gentle
spin, arms out stretched and palms upward like you are receiving
something—that someone who loves you will place a gumdrop into your hand so
you can close your fingers around the jeweled sugar and place it between
your teeth in a dirty scarfing.

This is where the lightning starts:  dry heat from the sky and into your
hands leaving burn marks on skin, smoothing over heart lines like you have
no heart, though I know it is there.  The bolts, jagged like raised veins
come together in front of your stomach and slice towards where I am
standing, speechless.  The outcome is uncertain:  the voltage runs over my
body like a pulped orange turning everything I am into something I am not,
or it doesn’t.  The current springs back upon you, knocking your helmet off
of your head to reveal a face like mine, or it doesn’t.  The wind changes
direction:  I know this because I cannot stand still—I must pick up what is
left, I must hold your blackened hands.  I know this because for once I can
see the rain slanted downwards:  falling in grey lines like the ghosts of
our loved ones shooting towards the earth.



*Brian Oliu* (http://www.brianoliu.com) is originally from New Jersey and
currently lives in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.  His work has been published in *Hotel
Amerika*, *New Ohio Review*, *Ninth Letter*, *Sonora Review*, *Puerto del
Sol*, and elsewhere.  His collection of Tuscaloosa Craigslist Missed
Connections, *So You Know It's Me* is available through Tiny Hardcore Press.

-- 
RealPoetik
www.realpoetik.org
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