When it is damp in Memphis
from the rusted-out bottom
to the red-tinged ceiling drip
womb seeping history of
a yellow fevered dream
Damp unabated crawls
through the cracks
of my sleeping lids
far too long, Memphis
this rotted heart
splintered with pine
My eye-shined predator
my wolfy slinked twin
glove my hand, say
the hills are this way
Poet, scholar, and multidisciplinary artist Kathy Lou Schultz (https://kathylou.com)has been awarded artist residencies by The Centrum Foundation, Kimmel Harding Nelson Center for the Arts, Ragdale, and Vermont Studio Center. Her scholarship has been supported by the National Humanities Center and the Marcus Orr Center for the Humanities. Schultz’s poetry and experimental prose is published in numerous journals and anthologies, including Bombay Gin, Fence, Fourteen Hills, Marsh Hawk Review, Miracle Monocle, New American Writing, P Queue Literary Journal, Touch the Donkey, and Women Poets on Mentorship: Efforts and Affections. Additional selections from this long poem-in-progress appear in Cleaver Magazine https://miraclemonocle.com/articles/4153/ and are forthcoming in The Brooklyn Rail. Two new collages are published by Black Lily. She currently lives in the occupied city of Memphis.