Three Poems from A.J. Huffman

Arctic Butterflies

Portraits of fragility echoing definitive

definitions of strength spread

their darkened wings, gather sun’s warmth.

Dorsal basking, lateral basking, mid-flight V,

every move is designed to harvest heat

as they flutter and dance their way across

summer fields, becoming, in visitor’s minds,

flash-bulb moments of nature’s possibilities.

from Flamingo this Vision

of self-containment, internal

flight.  Movement stifled, re-routed,

released in flutter of pink

feathered eyes seeing beyond

sky.  Balance

can be extended.  One leg

bending between two planes.

Hosak’s Cave

A crack of light,

of life, brown but not out

of the cycle. 

The walls are breathing,

breeding

a carpet fit for the king

of beasts.

A.J. Huffman has published thirteen full-length poetry collections, fourteen solo poetry chapbooks and one joint poetry chapbook through various small presses.  Her most recent releases, The Pyre On Which Tomorrow Burns (Scars Publications), Degeneration (Pink Girl Ink), A Bizarre Burning of Bees (Transcendent Zero Press), and Familiar Illusions (Flutter Press) are now available from their respective publishers.  She is a five-time Pushcart Prize nominee, a two-time Best of Net nominee, and has published over 2600 poems in various national and international journals, including Labletter, The James Dickey Review, The Bookends Review, Bone Orchard, Corvus Review, EgoPHobia, and Kritya.  She is the founding editor of Kind of a Hurricane Press.  You can find more of her personal work here:  https://ajhuffmanpoetryspot.blogspot.com/