Death in the Afternoon

Hemingway couldn’t beat it.

The words pumped in his veins
And gathered in his head
But wouldn’t pour out his fingers.

So he blew them all over the walls
At the age of 61.

Gave his art his heart,
But couldn’t make it love him back.

The sun sets,
But it also rises.

Death in the afternoon,
On a Sunday no less,
The worst kind.

McKenzie Teter is an MFA candidate at the University of North Carolina Wilmington with a focus in poetry. Her other publications include two poems in Her Heart Poetry’s Annual Collection (2017), a fiction piece in the Italian Americana Review (2019), three poem in Voice of Eve Magazine (2019), and one poem in Foothill Journal (2019).