deer as permission to die in Ohio (43 poems, April 2023)

from
deer as permission to die in Ohio

OUTSIDES
The space between birth and death is the same for every creature. I say this lightly and I say this as two rooms enter my stranded room. Eating disproves god. Dream is a wasp that sells as its own a mosquito’s art. It’s okay you wanna catch the slow angel. I’ve never been alone and neither have you.

AGAINST INTERIORITY
The astronaut called to recut porn and the caterpillar to soften the palms of the crucified. The pill living in the pill you take. Toy noise from a phoneless hell. Blue doll, erasable wrist.

THE BULLET GOES THROUGH MORE PEOPLE THAN BEFORE
Cannibal on the 
moon, ghost at the piano.
The rain gone missing.

BREATHING MACHINES MADE IN OHIO
Unending angel 
of a terrified stomach.
Tadpole, eye’s daydream.

THE SLEEP GOD GETS
Lightning finds a vein.
Password sends a nude.

SMALL POEMS AGAINST DYING
The sleepwalker and the insomniac asking god to switch their hidden pregnancies.

A vaccine for object permanence.

The fly 
my ghost 
calls rain.

~

deer as permission to die in ohio
43 poems, pocketbook style
April 2023

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cover image by Noah M. Smock