Bright's Disease
by Eric Weinstein

killed emily
dickinson.

i always imagined
luminous effusion, a profusion

of congealed light spilling
into the chest cavity

drowning the heart and lungs,
crepuscular rays emanating

from the eyes and mouth
at the hour of death:

never an inflammation
of the kidneys,

a slow burning out,
an extinguishing

of the blood's
combustion.


i can only hope
they cremated her.

Eric Weinstein recently graduated magna cum laude from Duke University with an AB in English and Philosophy. He was born in Macon, Georgia and grew up in Nashua, New Hampshire. He currently lives and writes in Hoboken, New Jersey. His poetry has previously appeared in The Archive, Wheelhouse Magazine, Prick of the Spindle, Rainy Day, and others, and has won several awards, including the Anne Flexner Prize in Poetry.

© 2008 prickofthespindle.com