the blueshift journal
blueshift / ˈblo͞oˌSHift / noun
the displacement of the spectrum to shorter wavelengths in the light coming from distant celestial objects moving toward the observer.
PANHANDLE GOTHIC
BRAD TRUMPFHELLER
& how else could she begin:
the night’s slow & haunted song—quiet
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like she always was when she talked
about her mothers. Here is where sky drones
a moon out of stretch-marked skin & here
is where their ramshackle house is cradled like a swamp
might keep blackened bones. Outside, a mob ghosts
the property line, throbbing in & out of sight. Some wear clothes
that they wore in life; others scabs of uncloseted
robes. O Lord, why did you name these things? Men
who wear such masks, why are they not dead? The neighbors have
so many faces tonight. Listen: this is where they call
my grandmothers godless dykes. Hear how that unholy naming
can flutter in your breast? It sounds just
like a window opening
around the shape of a brick.
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