in the cleft of the rock

I am ensconced I am cottoned-up I am a smooth blue rock.

I am hiding in some places where monsters can’t see me.

It’s raining. Perhaps I should clarify perhaps I have come to the world’s

end a long valley with nothing in it I am safe,

I am beyond God’s reach.

Perhaps I should tell you that I am no criminal

I am no snitch I am loyal to a fault but I cannot sleep at night I cannot

hold on to my morning toasts my morning tea I can no longer

grasp the fundamentals

but it is no matter now.

Here at the world’s end all meals are canceled

any suggestions of the old life are snuffed out.

I am nestled against the thighs of some ancient beast who

breaths into my mouth who

licks behind my ears who

seems to be planning to keep me.

Rebecca Cook lives in Chattanooga, TN. She grew up in North Georgia on a farm in Wood Station. She is a writer and visual artist, a writing teacher, an editor, and she has been known to preach in her local church, Grace Episcopal. She is a mom, a wife, and a homemaker/cook at present as she no longer works outside the home. She took her MA in English Literature (UTC), her MA in Rhetoric and Writing (UTC), and MFA in Creative Writing,--poetry, creative nonfiction, (Vermont College). She has published prose and poetry widely across the internet and in print magazines and journals.