Hailing from the farm valleys of west Appalachia, Ben Kline lives in Cincinnati, Ohio, toiling away on his full-length manuscript Twang and two little chapbooks while drinking just the right amount of bourbon, coffee and wine. His work is forthcoming or has recently appeared in Toe Good, Rappahannock Review, Grist Online, Riggwelter, The Mantle, Ghost City Review, apt, ImageOutWrite Vol. 7, The Offing, Impossible Archetype and many more.




Ben Kline

Spell to Unbind Family Ties

Type ten digits and dial for an expected result, for a recognized voice, though such ghosts, like math, occasionally lie, and some adults prefer you never finish the problem, just place your thumb across the microphone slot and whisper Jesus H Christ, and some brothers prefer not to equate beyond spouses or wedding receptions yet would tell you to hang up, to give up listening to wind, and your one sister would produce no result, no verifiable answer, like a galaxy reacting to unseen ancient forces outward, and your mom’s best attempt to make Advent rosary a fun way to earn favor with Santa, who was just another lie on an error report you hand wrote and hid in your neatly sorted sock drawer, like that photo of the four of you creased white with wallet keeping in the years after the funeral, no one smiling nor crying because the sky ripped wide to scream and filled shoes with cemetery truth as brown as the grave’s walls losing volume to the coffin suddenly afloat.


"Spell to Unbind Family Ties" began as a bourbon-infused thought about funerals being both ending and beginning. A remaining great aunt passes and her side of an extended family no longer visits at Christmas or attends the summer reunion. A spouse dies and the widowed empty nester sells the house, crossing country to become a yogi in Malibu, video chatting the kids on weekends. Cousins transition to social media, big weddings, occasional funerals. Birthday greetings become texts, not cards. The loss rarely draws people closer. I wondered why and considered how families often splinter with time, geography, politics, money, illness and much more. I felt a dark magic at work and wrote this poem to expose it to light.



Glass: A Journal of Poetry is published monthly by Glass Poetry Press.
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