Where the Road Ends (Shutting Down HUP)

After May, I'm closing this space. I will keep it as an archive (and will continue the Twitter account). I thought things would improve both in my personal life and HUP in general by now, but our seventh year will be our last.

I'm so grateful to everyone who mentored for the program, trusted me with their work, or helped me run things (definite props to Val). One of the best parts of all the time, money, and spoons I put into this was meeting some amazing folks. You made this ride worthwhile.

Submissions remain open until I get enough content to send everything off in style. I have one book review (apologies for the delay, Allegra) before June.

To those of you who said you could do things better than me: I hope you do. I hope you start amazing shit for our community that rivals any idea I've ever had. I want to see crips skyrocketing to where they want to go because of your efforts. I'm cheering for you.

And I'll still be cheering for every reader, submitter, and creative crip until my voice gives out. Thank you for everything. 

Shot by Cameron Morse

Do I have more in the barrel
the cannon or
could it be my time here

is spent? My left hand is shot
I know that for sure
but I keep firing off footsteps

despite the abnormal gait I keep
patting the back
of an inconsolable baby.

Her cries shrill each cell
of my body
into string beans.

The grind of teeth in the dark
bed beside you
are two rocks rubbing

themselves into particles
of themselves.
Craggy faces smoothed out

featherdusted until featureless.

~*~

Cameron Morse holds an MFA from the University of Kansas City-Missouri and lives in Independence, Missouri, with his wife and three children. He is the author of ten collections of poetry and serves as Senior Reviews editor at Harbor Review and a reader at Small Harbor Publishing. His first collection, Fall Risk, won Glass Lyre Press’s 2018 Best Book Award.   

Visit his website here: https://cameronmorsepoems.wordpress.com/