I’d like to think there’s order
to the universe (says every

astrophysicist) so I drink
at Brillobox, then expand

out into the river region,
& into the river itself

with broken bottle
among dead husks of beetles.

I float fast, staring at the cloudless
sky of stars thinking what

a waste right now it’d be
to pray to Jesus with all this

dirty beauty in the air. You’ve
read my diary, you know my secrets,

you see where my thoughts wander
when left unattended (black

crows drowning, strawberry
lips & gin & everyone

you have ever known).
My clothes waft that cigarette

scent, but in the water I launder
myself in the cycle of time

& thus I am a pendulum,
swinging in the dark.


(originally published in LEVITATE, Spring 2022)