Tim Murphy was a winner of the inaugural Laurence Sterne Prize for his chapbook, Young in the Night Grass (Beir Bua Press, 2022). His first full-length collection is Mouth of Shadows (SurVision Books, 2022).

Tim Murphy

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Kidnap Cult

(haibun)

In the bedroom a ransom decays into charred myrrh. A parcel of shame lies discarded
on the kitchen floor. In the living room a cigarette burns in an ashtray and a cassette
machine plays a recording of a robot's voice. The voice repeats a mantra: "The path is a
spiral that does not begin or end." The doorbell rings and blue lips open the door. The
afternoon flashes its scarab and asks permission to enter. No response is given. Utter
paralysis. And now they say the siege may never be lifted.

night cicadas—
another round
of memento mori