Susan Tepper is a twenty-year writer and the author of nine published books of fiction and poetry. Currently, she is at work on mounting an Off-Broadway play about artist Jackson Pollock in his later years. http://www.susantepper.com

Argento    

(for silver in Spanish)          
            your lips are bleeding—
 
don’t take this wrong
         I’m just not    
                                 up for
 
swallowing
 
wriggling silver colored fish             
        as waiters pass around the chasers
 
 
Though I did my best        to act
impressed by
            the bullfight posters
 
ablaze with your name\ dates\ &
             all the rest
 
 
 
A (for silver)        your neck & the night
                   are tempting
 
 you brush off the blood as           consequence
                  of misguided youth
 
Why—
Then—
Saved—
tacked to a wall in your place?
 
 
Again, like the fish, Argento
         (I live on a spoon)           
              Am just not a fan     of
                           dust and the crowds
             
acrid roars rising from the ring             
         capes and the steel bolados     
                     Glint      
 
           blood
                   &
                   the swagger  
 
 
 
In dreams clutching at seat rails
         leaning forward—     feeling faint 

Digby Beaumont is a self-taught artist whose work has appeared widely in online magazines and journals. An interview with him about his art feature in the journal, Tupelo Quarterly. He is also a writer. His flash fiction has appeared in numerous print and online journals and anthologies, including The Best Small Fictions. His collection of one-page stories, Dancing Alone and Other Lessons, was released in early 2020. For a showcase of Digby’s art and writing: https://digbybeaumont.com/ .