Last Free Exit by Elijah Burrell

A modest memory of you unrattles me,

allowing me to notice the caterpillar ahead

and adjust my heavy steps around her.

Evergreen needles—like quills

from a golden porcupine—give 

beneath me as I push along the thin path. 

I taste dandelion stems for their sour.

I wonder when my bill will fall due. 

I hitchhike through life from one warm 

person to the next. I have been carried

farther than I have changed.

A black butterfly lies on her side, moving 

one magnificent wing down, then up.

All that change spent on beauty.

After I pass, her wing will go slack, and  

something will come along to carry her away.

Elijah Burrell is the author of three collections of poetry: Skies of Blur (2024), TROUBLER (2018), and The Skin of the River (2014). His writing has appeared in publications such as AGNI, The Hopkins Review, North American Review, Southwest Review, The Rumpus, Sugar House Review, and Measure and has been featured on The Slowdown podcast. He received the 2010 Jane Kenyon Scholarship at Bennington College, where he earned his MFA in Writing and Literature through the Bennington Writing Seminars. In 2012, he joined the faculty of Lincoln University of Missouri, where he serves as professor of English and teaches creative writing.