At Pace on Monday

POETRY

Winter 2026 Issue 3

ERIC BRAMAN

slow as a stream
near the edge of summer
when springtime kisses
run dry from the mountainside

this is how I wish
to move through Monday

at the pace of a tree
expanding ring by ring
beneath its scaley skin
each stripe a story of sun and snow

make me a centipede
crawling across a maple leaf

moving as morning mist
silver over evergreen tips
small fingers drawing spirals
across the spines of the Coburg Hills

yes, let me be honey
dripping from the beaks of buzzards

shuffling and shifting
at pace with tectonic plates
humidity held inside my bones
as I grow just one molecule at a time

moss on granite stone
ocean swallowing a city whole

ERIC BRAMAN (they/them) is a poet, storyteller, and playwright and author of Bury Me in Cherry Blossoms (Cirque Press). Eric's work has been published by High Shelf Press, Qu Literary Magazine, The Coachella Review, Moon Tide Press, Tethered Literary, and more. They have also produced a range of autobiographical performances including To You / To Myself, which was an honorarium recipient at the 2022 Oregon Fringe Festival. Eric was selected as the 2025 Writer in Residence with Fishtrap and 2024 Featured Poet at the Oregon Poetry Out Loud State Contest, and also nominated for a 2025 Michigan Broadway Award for Best New Play. www.ericbraman.com

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