Channel by Susan Tepper

Bury me in a giant keg, I’m lonely—

the squeeze of amniotic 

fluid waves made seminal 

a twin who didn’t escape

the narrow channel—

Question on whisky lips, 

always pondering 

the why— in the end

a reason for

hugging dark bars 

in daylight with other dead people.

Susan Tepper is the author of eight published books of fiction and poetry. Her most recent book just out in June is a road novel titled “What Drives Men.” It was shortlisted at American Book Fest Best Book Awards. Other honors and awards include eighteen Pushcart Nominations, a Pulitzer Prize Nomination for the novel “What May Have Been” (Cervena Barva Press, and currently being adapted for the stage), NPR’s Selected Shorts Series, Second Place Winner in Story/South Million Writers Award, Best Story of 17 Years of Vestal Review, Shortlisted 7th in the Zoetrope Novel Contest (2003), Best of the Net and more. Tepper is a native New Yorker.