Originally published in Lingerpost #4
1
Dream out of focus
Fragment
Stark faculties
The sharp call
of crickets drifting
and riddling
the cold spaces
of my inner recesses.
In the swallowing night
dried leaves skitter
on the street leaving
footsteps in my ears:
Footsteps that fold
and collapse,
The implications of folds,
My mind folding over
like skin.
A fabric so thin
it must be
touched to exist.
2
Shadow-eyed, I
watch moths
beat themselves
to death
against
the streetlamps
listen to the rhythmic
knock of their bodies
against light.
Moths like desperate
knuckles knocking
on doors
the knock and flutter
of thoughts
and stuttering talk,
the limitless flickering
of their wings.
When they drop
my eyelashes
catch them.
3
There is nothing
but what is near to us.
If you don’t believe me,
go down the street
and drift around.
Eels of light slide
from dim streetlamps.
Like eels, my thoughts
radiate from my bulbous
head, bleed together
like a blend
of yellow episodes
or a bowl of soup
between two lovers.
My voice like an eel
with heavy teeth,
drifting through curls
of smoke.
I only have to close
my eyes
to possess myself.