I saw a man smoke his fascinations,
hold them in his lungs until they burst.
I know sleeps without breathing,
because to breathe anything else would be to ruin the recipe.

He was forced to look at the mountains,
from base to tip,
breaking his back as he watched the skyline split.

He was thrown in the mountain
with the other boys whose lungs were empty potential,
and as the darkness absorbed the hand in front of his face,
his aches became mountain lions.

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Dylan Mabe (he/him/his) is a queer Appalachian artist native to Big Stone Gap, Virginia. . His poetry has featured in the 2022 Bluestone Review, and the Spring 2021 Issue of Little Somethings Press.