Poetry. Paperback. 60 pages. 2018. ISBN: 978-0-9992103-6-9

Nuclear annihilation, chemical longing, human pollination, city banter, and fast food fuse to create glimpses of friendship, love lost and found, and the unraveling of american pre-dispositions. Qualles finds the ether lingering above life and pulls herself into it to draw us a map.

from Loose Cannon:

"Jugular's Atlas"

withered out doorsteps

a surprise attack

is getting closer

[She breathes in glass intervals]

will everything be ok after piercing?

after creased perception dwindles?

the smile ready for disintegration

stands rocking on the bookshelf

there is an off chance the ink is still wet

"Explaining Poetry to a Dead Rabbit"

Destiny is negative

All manners of circles come pulsing

It's not noisy

But to read it backward is sacrifice

It is like forgetting how you died

how that eagle snapped your neck

and called its children up for breakfast

It is me by your side

shoe to head nudging

Saying sorry only to the blood and waking up

How tiring it is when you are your only fear

When the cost of letters

segregates the opened mind

To see the blades of grass as you do

For you to know what it feels like to be safe

The separation of skin and bone has widened

for the words

That endless highway keeping me up

that last touch of dirt crawling in your ear

and the creek from here to sky

motioning complete