dalliance—Chris Wheeler

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by Chris Wheeler

It did not make a sound when I hit it, the small 
hollow-boned body tumbling on the updraft 
of my car, up and over the hood,
as if a piece of a cloud merely detached itself
and slipped over my machine in passing,
as if an eddy cradled a leaf over roiling rapids 
in its surface-tension arms, as if all of us were 
not entwined and responsible but dancing 
a feathers-breadth by one another 
and the very speed at which we pass
is the only safety available, 
as if I had not just begun my day
by ending a life.

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Chris Wheeler is a writer and poet rooted in Middlebury, IN. His work has been published in Barren, Fathom, and The Rabbit Room, among others. He has published two collections of poetry: Solace: Poems for the Broken Season (2020), and Masks & Mirrors (2023). He writes regular long-form work and poetry at Tethered Letters. He lives with his wife and five children in his childhood home.