easier to sign lower
case like my poetry/like a true poet
i picked a name that’s in every
poem

1
sat on the brown floor
of it looking through the foggy catfish sky
around. covered in silt/earthblood i wanted to die
blessed. hiding seemed like the best option
surrounded by dirty fleeing salmon. no one wanted
to have their babies around me. they could tell i wasn’t
there yet.

2
soft friction
between green consonants. revving air
between your lips
to make something/anything flow smoothly.

3
resigned to blue
of course. slipped into sweating soda cans. eroded wood structures
in squares and rectangles/caving to my accidental
will. tripped on my own current. all the while
encouraging delusion
that water surrounded by its family tends
to look clean.

4
down to pray. took me.
then i faced my namesake with both hands flat
on white apron dress
crushing my grown body and looked backward at you.
it’s my favorite photograph of the hundreds. my eyes looked beautiful
drunk on betrayal.

5
washed over children’s
finger drawings on the shore as i inescapably would. moved
to new states. showed my face
and shot tributaries/estuaries/creeks/new hands for me.
froze/melted/washed/soaked/evaporated/danced/murmured/screamed/retracted/
flooded/