JC Alfier

His Eurydice of Chimney Creek, Virginia 

for Tay, whose laughter found the wounds

All this holding back      dissembling
     half-earned sorrow

these waymarks      missteps
     of the underworld

unaltered eyes      dashboard dimness —
     autumnal glow of falling back

to fugitive transit:      hallway      staircase
     terminal      blind curve

of a midnight exit ramp

JC Alfier’s (they/them) most recent book of poetry, The Shadow Field, was published by Louisiana Literature Press (2020). Journal credits include Faultline, New York Quarterly, Notre Dame Review, Penn Review, River Styx, Southern Poetry Review and Vassar Review. They are also an artist doing collage and double-exposure work.