Contents

Another Restless Night in My Apartment

Listen to the sounds within and without:
To the cell phone and the police siren
symphonies, the cacophony of microwave popcorn
drum rolls that crescendo into brief three-note
monotone climaxes, radio and restaurant speakers
bleating, gurgling like goats with their throats slit –

Listen carefully. You’ll notice
an absence of the cicada chirp, the silence
of the katydid chorus… no cricket calls
to lull you to sleep here. They’ve disappeared.

Lost in the static; dissilience of city life.

About the Author

Charles Childers is a junior English major with a focus in literature at Marshall University. He has been writing for about three years but has only recently begun to seriously pursue a career in writing. He has been published in Et Cetera, a literary magazine on Marshall's campus. In his free time he does spoken-word poetry and plays the drums for a punk rock band.