Poetry - Spring 2023

The Anabasis of Godspeed

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By Ishion Hutchinson | March 1, 2023
Kent MacElwee (Flickr/kmacelwee)
Kent MacElwee (Flickr/kmacelwee)

Then proceeded to BAGHDAD and AMMAN. Godspeed was almost afraid of
butterflies. They sickened him during the breeding season when they
swarmed around any source of water in the viceregal district where he
was born. The day was hot and everything was green. He saw that the
puddles were moving and the cars were crushing butterflies and the
roads were moving too because the butterflies were slowly dying on the
roads. Everything moved around him. The leaves on the trees swayed
not from the wind but from butterflies. Butterflies were everywhere alive
on the blooming lilacs and dead on the roads. He ordered a hurricane to
wipe the roads clean and immediately disappeared into the shutting fan
of a shame-me-lady.

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