When I look at a pool blue
sky, I see flesh, the dried sweat
in clouds. My thoughts are grotesque
to myself. Incense smoldering.
A trembling abstraction. I know–
in theory– I am not indebted
to you. The space beyond our knot
is eternal. Every night, my brain tells me
nothing may be beyond your control,
but each day I wilt at the irresistible.
(originally published in MONO., Spring 2022)
it’s too much pain to view them in my brain
the brain hungry the eyes always feed it
processes everything as sadness I eat the cosmos
with sight yet fixate on what I have
lost everything a miracle of blood and dust
around me and in the fog I loop December
nights with the dull orange parking lot lights
we walked under to get home and in my hand
there are snapshots of us holding hands
everywhere in the known universe!
(originally published in New Pop Lit, Summer 2020)