aftertaste

Steve Brisendine

originally published Autumn 2023

a dried sage flower's
camphor bite, and I am six

again, flinching from
a soaked cotton swab in my

mother's hand; hold still, she says,
it just hurts a bit –

prophetic in retrospect,
though this sensation

is more melancholy ache
than cool medicinal burn


Steve Brisendine lives and works in Mission, Kansas. His most recent collection is To Dance with Cassiopeia and Die (Alien Buddha Press, 2022), a “collaboration” with his former pen name of Stephen Clay Dearborn. His work has appeared in Modern Haiku, Flint Hills Review, Connecticut River Review and other journals and anthologies.


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