Erik Wirkkala is an untrained writer who has felt compelled to write his whole life. Until recently he shared his poetry with very few people. He’s ready to open his work up to other eyes and to get feedback so he can become a better and more confident writer. His third grade teacher once told his mother that he was the kind of kid who “marched to the beat of a different drum,” and he feels like he’s lost touch with that part of himself trying to fit his awkward soul into a traditional mold. Writing provides a way for him to reintroduce himself to that strange little kid he never wanted to be but finally stopped trying to outrun. Erik was born, raised, and still lives in the San Francisco Bay area. His poetry has appeared at Aberration Labyrinth. 

Contracting Eden
By Eric Wirkkala

Apathy rides in on a wind-driven rainbow
and praying hands tingle with the sensation of sleep
Here, a muddled bit of americana becomes one with the earth
There is a conversation to be had with the dead,
as there is no greater depth than the grave

Consider the vacant offering of stillborn baby Jane
The millions of impervious cancer cells burned to ash and bottled
A granite gaze from the very dead Geneva West,
her view all the way to Mount Tam

An unknown man dies tomorrow,
the casket is here by Thursday
A new neighbor on the west side,
a cozy nest of mausoleums

Streets converge at sunrise and sunset
I say I am content,
maybe even a little ready to go
But my car is running rough
and I can’t find a good song on the radio

Spiders drop from the trees and the crows are humored;
the receiving vault is always open