Drying Out
Max Heinegg
Of that morning, I remember donning
the layered skin, & its bladder,
the helmet & its clear visor, &
then a desperate sliding toward
a slack oblivion
& the mocking stars—
an astronaut, pushed
onto the spacewalk. The crew inside
tightening the airlock.
I floated, gripping the umbilicus,
my body orbiting the natural
satellite of my life,
promising if I was pulled back,
I would never venture out again.
Max Heinegg’s poems have been nominated for Best of the Net, and The Pushcart Prize. I've been a finalist for the poetry prizes of Crab Creek Review, December Magazine, Cultural Weekly, Cutthroat, Rougarou, Asheville Poetry Review, the Nazim Hikmet prize, and Twyckenham Notes. Recent work appears in Thrush, Nimrod, The Cortland Review, and Love's Executive Order. Additionally, he is a singer-songwriter and recording artist whose records can be heard at www.maxheinegg.com