JESSICA LYNNE FURTADO

Ghost Disco

I’ve got a hunger
to walk the night-
life the way dust
dances on light.
Dashed into atomic
diamonds, I shine
on your breath
like a moon’s exhale,
so pale you didn’t
even see me coming.
I lack a certain
shape when haunting,
shimmy from host
to host until I’m lost
in the crowd. The music’s
so loud you pulse
like a hive, so alive
you won’t hear
my blood howling.

The Harmonica Plays Sleeping Beauty

Little Lady sleeps in velvet,
silver and song-
throated, speckled with age.
I forget the swoon
of her song, silent
for decades, the edge
of each breath gasping
at memory until I
am met with a melody
bright, but indistinct.
I spend so many days
listening, but not hearing
the pulses that pour from
her straightened swan
neck – fingers fumbling
to repeat the timing
of compressions. Only
Papa would know how
to make her exhale again.

Jessica Lynne Furtado is a poet, photographer, & librarian. Her visual work has been featured in Muzzle Magazine, PANK, Pretty Owl Poetry, Waxwing, and elsewhere. Jessica’s writing has appeared in apt, Rogue Agent, and Ink & Nebula, among others. Visit her at www.jessicafurtado.com