Ceiling leaks on mahogany plate–
nowhere for rain. The cat self-
cleans beside treble clef legs.
Roomba learns the floor’s secrets.
Purple grape stems. Vent dust
from the void. I left you a voicemail
on a no outlet road. I read a few pages
tonight. Shower steam dissipates
slowly into starlight.
(originally published in Bindweed Magazine, Summer 2021)
I want to breathe dirty
cigarette lungs
into the bed grime you say it
is time to bless the sheets
with renewal so we spin
around the laundromat
hand-in-hand do-si-do
though strangers stare
hard monosyllabic
menace to shoe-
dirt joining dust
on the sweaty
floor sex stomps
one body over another
until detergent
soaks threadbare
fabric
(originally published in HeadStuff, Spring 2020)
here I look at the same room I’ve spent many nights in
the diffuser diffusing the world’s hues into you & me
the cat composed of smoke
Sara takes a sick day & the room crawls with veins
I watch my own age spiderweb into me flipping pages in a manuscript
this room is made of hair this room breathes fur webs
this is what brains are made of
every imprint of hand
when you sit down this bed this ocean floor this beginning
(originally published in Ariel Chart, Fall 2017)