By: Alexa Mal
HAVE YE AN ICE SHANTY? OR A ZIPPO WITH MONSTER STICKERS?
today the clouds are
perfect & thin firs’
sighing damped
under alabaster sun
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I like when we all
go outside periodically
I like
when it’s not up to me
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this ceremony
of contact rote
reaching warm
skin light-serrated
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all my friends are here
living
alive
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I like it
outside
where we are
the chicken-colored
pigeons gargling bones
for want
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light breaks
weeks drink
everything orange
everything sun
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I want to feed them
what I know is not good
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I feel windowless
charged
these clouds!
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shed a layer
if you’re warm
I wouldn’t mind seeing
your skin
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let’s go
outside
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my mouth with its
teeth feels mouthier
than your mouth
feels mouthish
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everyone is sexy
in a blank white
t shirt
wind loose rattles
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we all go outside
I like it
WORM SMELL
after rain
FIRST.
good morning I love you
I’ve hidden your glasses
I just like you best
when you’re part blind & woken
just need time to watch you
push your eyes further
NEXT.
robin eats worm
[tosses back bird face
to nip & lash wormy still-
worming stretch of worm over over
& up in little flips makes it
Q & long in slime slow despair
‘till the whole thing gets downed]
NEXT.
it’s so hard to do
anything sometimes
NEXT.
the first rhyme that broke
my heart wasn’t intended
read just like she spoke
sad, artless, suspended
I don’t know I miss you whatever
life is never pretty forever
NIGHTS I SPEND CRYING OVER CRAIGSLIST MISSED CONNECTIONS
baby, sometimes my head is
all water & noise
& I think I could explode (see oblivion)
here on the khaki couch mussing
all the perfect hair around me with my rations
we learned to swim like medusa
drenched in skin that hurts
the way we love in public
made an island when the tent
got rain, made us laugh
when the wood went out
dear, I get so nervous
when your head’s all spit & fog
I skip rocks, skip yoga,
talk to cages in your sleep
Alexa Mal’s work has appeared in Whiskey Island, Heavy Feather Review, 1001 Journal, and Old Pal Mag, for which they are a contributing editor. They received an MFA in Poetry from Portland State University & live in Cleveland, Ohio.
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