[Directions: Upon reading this poem, make your way to a local pawn shop or thrift store. Locate & purchase a ship in a bottle, a snowglobe, or some other encased knickknack with a removable cork, stopper, or base. Make a copy of this poem—handwriting, photography, or printout are all viable—& roll or loosely fold the poem so it may fit into the enclosed container. Sleep with the container under your pillow for two weeks. After those nights have passed, travel to a shore or pier & toss the container & the poem into the water. Sleep.]
Scatter the ashes of my body
across white-sand beaches gone glassy
after lightning strikes the western coast
Nestle me into the dunes
Nudge me into the passing wind’s sigh
Let me rustle the birches’ last leaves
Permit me entry into the energy of a wave
A force is the cause of any motion
the very reason for that motion to question
how it got its start & where
if ever
it ends
Jacob Schepers (he/him) is the author of A Bundle of Careful Compromises (Outriders Poetry Project 2014). His manuscript “Colder Country” is a two-time finalist for the Antivenom Poetry Prize as well as the Annual Poetry Award from Elixir Press. His poems and reviews have appeared in such places as Verse, Midway Journal, Tupelo Quarterly, The Fanzine, Entropy, Heavy Feather Review, Burning House Press, The Destroyer, and elsewhere. With Sara Judy he edits the journal ballast, and he teaches at the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, Indiana. www.jacobschepers and @JacobSchepers.