Hammer
by Thomas Rions-Maehren
how can you curse your luck
when every time you see yourself
in a mirror, you smash the glass
with a hammer. you’re Hephaestus,
the ugliest of the divine, banging
blank pages with a mallet, shocked
that your torn paper doesn’t shine
like Achilles’ shield. you
drive down railroad ties
in the places you used to
thrive, as if you could find a train
to take you to the past. a smoke-
storm, and you’re out in the crimson haze
swinging that hammer, saying that
you’re building yourself a home. you bash
down walls and then try to hide,
crumble the concrete foundations
on which you wish to stand. clanking metal
memories; steel puncturing your soul.
they tell you to keep pounding,
your vanity whiffing through the ethereal starlight,
your nude feet bleeding on rubble, rusted nails
and shattered diamonds.
Thomas Rions-Maehren, along with being a new editor at Open Expression Journal, is a bilingual poet, novelist, and chemist. His scientific research has been published in ACS Nano, and examples of his Spanish-language prose can be found in his published short stories and in his novel En las Manos de Satanás (Ápeiron Ediciones, 2022). More of his poetry in both languages can be found in a number of journals, such as The Elevation and Welter, at his blog (tommaehrenpoetry.blogspot.com), and at his website (thomasrionsmaehren.com).
He is on X and Instagram: @MaehrenTom