Cover Art: Lewis Baltz, "Mustang Bridge Exit, Interstate 80, from the Nevada portfolio," 1977, Gelatin silver print, SFMOMA

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This Morning

the black plastic bag at the off

ramp was mistaken for a kitten.

I swerved, trying not to kill

but almost kill myself.


I make

creatures from shadows, build

voices with almost breath.


At horizon, my pallid

knees kiss sand. Now--

the ocean holds fragments

of shells, hands. A seagull

whistles, kettle on a burner,

​its helium cry.

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Terri Muuss is a social worker, director, performer, speaker & author whose poetry has received three Pushcart nominations and one Best of the Net nomination. Her first book, Over Exposed, was released in 2013 and in 2016 Terri co-edited an anthology of NY women poets entitled Grabbing the Apple. Terri has performed her one-woman show, Anatomy of a Doll, around the US and Canada since 1998. Her second book, God’s Spine, is forthcoming. Visit her at www.terrimuuss.com .

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