Liberty Bell

Aaron McCollough

1thinking what a crack is
far from anything like a seaaddition subtraction
so rigid
a fold gives upprodigious black wasps noose
and knot themselves by
the streetlight
conduit box balistrariaclimbers, chargers, dismemberers
unwind an echo in
matted leaf and stonecalm permission at the crosswalk:
there is no danger
now you may cross
 2twig across vistapressing a natural tower beneath which
deposited leaves wilt in the steamthe rumored pinching of
silty bottom fish slipt between nailsan opening and wider,
the valley and the sky spread
against each other against
our point of view:the veins in a beetle’s wing
in the urinal
 3smell of dish soap
and tupperware
cool handsthis air a reservoir
for preserving
spent meaning still suited
to the remaining timeanswers
as trafficwith a butterfly not fluttering
its hands in prayer

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Aaron McCollough is the author of six poetry collections, most recently Rank (University of Iowa Press, 2015). He lives in Washington, DC. He is co-publisher, with Karla Kelsey, of SplitLevel Texts.

the tiny

Issue 5 – 2018

Clinton, Iowa

Editors: Gabriella Torres and Gina Myers

Founded in 2005, the tiny was an annual print poetry journal edited by Gabriella Torres and Gina Myers. From 2005-2008, the journal published a wide range of poets, many of whom found their first publications in our pages. the tiny ceased publication in 2008 but returned in September 2017 as a biannual online journal edited by Torres and Myers. Keeping with its original vision, the tiny seeks to publish work from a diverse range of emerging and established voices.

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