LINGERING FEELING IN THE FINGERS
by Dan Murphy
Some unseen arrow from Apollo hit
him, he fell forward in his seat, slumped.
His face held the wheel imprint
like a corrugated smile
the whole deadlocked ride home …
murmuring to the underworld
then lying jacketed in the backseat.
Buffeted back once by West Division
cops gnashing our turf, we arrived,
broken men. Told his mom and pops.
He was saved, his rosary strung
twice-told through bloody crooked fingers.
His tallboy tilted forward to spill
its golden brilliant burden.
Dan Murphy's chapbook, Seasick Serenade, Sung Partial, was published with Bottlecap Press in January 2024, and a chapbook, The Book of False Rhyme, was published with Finishing Line Press in 2014. His writing has appeared in Field, Beloit Poetry Journal, Spillway, Zyzzyva, Image, Los Angeles Review, Cortland Review, North American Review, Café Review, and other worthy journals.
Murphy received a Master’s degree in English at California State University at Northridge, where he studied with Dorothy Barresi. He worked as a public-school teacher in the Los Angeles school district and lives with his family in Los Angeles.