anamorphosis at the synthetic water store
4: Something New Under the Sun (Alexandra Kleeman)
just like at IKEA, in the desert, in the way a child investigates
the Precambrian and hates that
your struggled kindness imposes on their time
just like in the room where your grandmother
last failed to know your name
it’s real easy to fuckin lose _____(1)_____ in the goddam WAT-R store
A.) it
B.) track of time
C.) your soul
D.) your way
E.) every last molecule of hydration
from your precious lips to your gravlax-locked sphincter
wending in and out rows
of everything everything everything
but at least you can’t tell the difference
between water and _____(2)_____
A. water
B. water
C. your soul
D. water
E. everything everything everything
anymore
when you stand in the pyral, suburban sprawl
the way you’ll be forgotten is really just water, too
3 thoughts on "anamorphosis at the synthetic water store"
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whoa, reading this was the most fun i’ve had experiencing pain/difficult emotions/frustration. “Precambrian” “gravlax-locked sphincter” and “pyral” tickled my brain and the multiple choice format really activated me in the SAT-anxiety center of my psyche.
thank you! i suppose i shouldn’t apologize for any negative emotions experienced since that more or less is the point, but i do feel bad about awakening SAT-anxiety!!! maybe just think of it as a very unfortunate Choose Your Own Adventure?
C! When in doubt, just go with C!
But on a serious note, still so much to unpack. There are so many layers to these poems (and I just realized, maybe long after I should have, that the numbered lines that start these poems are titles of other works) that it feels like I could still be dissecting the work when Lexpomo ’24 rolls around!