Kelli Allen, Managing Editor of Natural Bridge to Read at Duff's on Monday, October 25

The next Chance Operations reading will be held on Monday, October 25, at Duff's, 392 North Euclid, in the Central West End.

Featured readers will be Kelli Allen, Ken Brown, and Colleen McKee. An open-mic will follow the featured readers. Learn, Artist! will provide musical interludes. Doors open at 7:30 p.m.; cover charge $3.

Kelli Allen is an award-winning poet teaching, studying, and writing in St. Louis. She is the managing editor of Natural Bridge, a journal of contemporary literature.

Evolving

Intention is one wing.
The nest will always be
too distant from the ground—
             there is no going back
or up. Falling is our book
of nights, letters to cousins
written on someone else’s fur.

Stories we sing
to each other shade
and creep around
the intricate margins, sometimes
infectious, sometimes running
             loose, all wildness
             and teeth. I am
             nine syllables
             from my knees
and I cannot do
what you do.

-- Kelli Allen