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July 16, 2026 / barton smock

off and on crying beside small ambulances of dog worry, I cannot sleep like a baby

None of us are great
with goodbye

An entire angel
set aside
for death
July 16, 2026 / barton smock

I’m not gentle, I’m not you

If you cut a bird open, you can hear angels lying to god

Any bird
July 14, 2026 / barton smock

lightswitch


cut the hair of rain with god’s sleep

be sad with me for a mother’s hour

eat in front of our father for a year

keep time for a light switch scraping its bored magic across the stomach of an unclicked angel

find a mask
want a stomach
July 14, 2026 / barton smock

genitalia,

genitalia 19

the mouth that flew into my mouth has begun to open in yours

mouth of god, mouth of god

how do I close the mouth of god

maybe we kissed
it didn’t
fly

no image for that

two people, Eden, a spoonful of snow
July 14, 2026 / barton smock

cause worry

No one inside the house knows the fire is empty

Feed your little shapes
shapes

A dream
in a terrified
apple

God attracted to nothing
July 13, 2026 / barton smock

the tongue rolls time into the cigarette of a puzzled ghost

for Franz Wright

Life is indeed vague and inaccurate. All my days, I've not remembered seven straight. Don't touch my mom and dad.

July 9, 2026 / barton smock

the eye at least knows its emptiness


I have put rocks
through frogs
for sounding out
the patience
of my fear

How early I was
to my terrible angel

I would not mark myself
as wild, I would
bless the underbite, then hosanna
my bottom teeth
into the roof of my mouth

They put a light
made of light
in there
but I couldn’t
fill a ghost

Each toothache
around this time
slept longer
than god

I was eye and passed away mouth
A close friend blew his hand off
trying to call
his mother

No vision awaits our seeing

July 7, 2026 / barton smock

a number of my sadnesses have disappeared

In prose there is no instant miracle. My son is yet alive. Not every angel in heaven knows about the world. The ones that do have stomachs. Eating disorders cure magic. Put a snake’s egg under the shirt of your most boythinking doll. Piano: fingers asleep on the stitched-up skin of god. A number of my sadnesses have disappeared. My hair that way.
July 5, 2026 / barton smock

what we see of a star is star’s regret for dying once


An angel will kill a baby and tell you your imagery is missing the missing. The fish in my stomach say to my stomach that fish are made of blood. I am nearing the end of being happy. Hindsight: God saw your face and slept. Meetingplace: ghosts form a circle around the spider of distance. Pass away, mouth.
July 4, 2026 / barton smock

babies doing nothing

in doll
years