Megan Merchant graduated from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas after completing her M.F.A degree in poetry. Her poems and translations have appeared in publications including the Atlanta Review, Kennesaw Review, Margie, International Poetry Review and The Poetry of Yoga. She was the winner of the Las Vegas Poets Prize, judged by Tony Hoagland. Translucent, Sealed, is her first chapbook publication though Dancing Girl Press. Her first full-length collection, Gravel Ghosts, is forthcoming though Glass Lyre Press. Her first children’s book, These Words I’ve Shaped For You, will be appearing in 2016 through Philomel Books. Her future is bright. She wears shades.
Toast
Body of blush, purple-veined
skin stretched like dream,
where white clothes hang
there is the slightest hint.
Your breath, not a whisper,
but an entry, a tiny fishing
boat fighting the swallow of sea,
where sleep is stone.
All the witnesses have retired
to wandering the streets,
looking for the woman
whose breasts leak honeyed milk,
her baby, the sound of an egg
cracking, wails.
We raise our glasses, toast
the slightest possibility,
rims touching, filled ever so lightly
with this world.