some things to watch out for in a poem

Photo by Romana Iorga

something big something small something
with wings

something hungry or sated something
that doesn’t know what it wants

to die to sleep perchance
to write a poem

something that grows on trees            like money
but juicier                something       with a pit
pick it eat it    break
your teeth on it

something that strokes your neck at night
not a feather not someone’s breath not even
a dream

something that clings to a wall scurries along
the ground binds your hands bursts
out of your mouth

something that stretches lingers grows
deafening
follows wherever you go

something that holds up the sky gets caught
in your teeth makes clamshells weep

something covered with moss you pull up to your chin
over your lips your eyes your naked
thoughts

something that breaks into song
when you expect it the least

something that drops from the sky shatters on impact
bleeds

something with a tail to nuzzle into your palm to pierce
the soft shell of your heart something
to take home

something that rolls from under your feet gathers
no moss loves glass houses something
to hold in your fist

something with roots you want to slip sleep under
climb into hug borrow its skin

something neither too big nor too small
something in-between

First published in Thin Air Magazine, Summer 2020

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