Erin Murphy

Landscape of chronic
	fog and mist,

ellipses linking what was 
	and what is. 

Miners straining to hear
	a rescue team,

tan line from a wedding ring.
	A baton mid-

toss, an arrhythmic 
	dance, a song bleeding 

from a prison cell.
	How when you try 

not to think of something,  
 	you think of nothing 

else. An unplanned 
	nap. The lavender hour 

when you can’t tell bird 
	from bat. A lake on 

an acutely blue afternoon 
	when sky becomes water 

and water becomes air. 
	The distance between 

belief and belief,
	prayer and prayer. 

Erin Murphy’s most recent poetry books are Human Resources (2025) and Fluent in Blue (2024). Her work has appeared in Ecotone, Women’s Studies Quarterly, The Best of Brevity, Best Microfiction 2024, and elsewhere. She is a professor of English at Penn State Altoona and poetry editor of The Summerset Review. Website: www.erin-murphy.com