Issue 8

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Poetry

Trans-Neptunian Object
by Suzanne Buffam

The time and place and manner of my death are three facts that don't exist yet.

Facts exist for whole centuries and then suddenly cease.

Pluto used to be a planet and now it is a chunk of debris, number 1341340.

My grandmother's house stands on the hill above the sea where she left it.

When I come back to visit I discover a crater in its place.

This room is full of facts.

All day I let the cat out, let it in, then let it back out again.

I mean this metaphorically.

Some facts never exist.

It is winter. It is summer.

All night the branches tap at the glass.

Suzanne Buffam is the author of Past Imperfect (House of Anansi Press) and Interiors (Delirium Press). She is currently completing a second manuscript of poems. She lives in Chicago where she serves on the creative writing faculty at the University of Chicago.

Read more in Issue 8

Fiction Li Ling by Atsushi Nakajima
After the Wreck: Naomi J. Williams on Historical Fictions and Fictional Histories
Source Material:
Sara Majka Considers Booking a Room
Powers of Recuperation by Adrienne Rich
Trans-Neptunian Object by Suzanne Buffam
The Blackberries by Francis Ponge
The Mupandawana Dancing Champion by Petina Gappah