OVER HARD / Matthew Bruce Harrison
Sunrise traffic skirmish. Burned toast riddled in raw hands. Sliced- up oxblood booths. Drum rattle of overproduced teens. Light bulbs dying in country fried meat smoke. No mention of love all night. Doomed hash browns forecast collateral ketchup stains. Bones massed under mangled napkins. Overdone fusillade rain. No sign of gray retreat. No movie deal. No union. No tip. Every- body off- white bloating phobias. Taillights bleed south. Commodes boom. No sleep all night between us. Now who will strike blare trample spill out this over- creamed house brew shouting PAYBACK when charged for parking too long along the state route in a state of simmering red heritage? ⁂ Matthew Bruce Harrison's writing can be found in Sixth Finch, Nashville Review, Bayou, West Branch, Cincinnati Review, Carolina Quarterly, Adroit Journal, At Length, and others. Originally from Georgia, he now lives and teaches in Minnesota.
