By Thomas Snarsky
Twins are to triplets as mirrors are to kaleidoscopes
Roses & porcupines are both alive
All twelve of the slave-owning presidents are dead
All thirty NBA teams are ranked according to statistics
What the fuck am I doing What the fuck are we doing
What are the conditions under which we dilate
Are the openings ready for this putative onslaught
Uh huh uh huh Sure they are Sure you are Sure
These infinite gazes are plummeting & getting old
You are my favorite sentinel in oxblood boots
You are the sentinel of sentinels with your mauve heart
The four chambers of which are fast becoming sand
The enterprises are closing in Circulating their spirit of judgment
While liabilities are held deep undercover in the bowel tectonic
The shellfish are doing their damnedest to resist panarchy
Are you ready to concede the water lily
Are you absolutely sure you have to
Tom Snarsky is a Noyce Teaching Fellow at Tufts University in Medford, MA. His poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Blackbox Manifold, theEEEL, aglimpseof, M58, and elsewhere. He lives in Braintree, MA.
Art: “Reflect” by Sarah A. O’Brien
Sarah A. O’Brien graduated from Providence College in May 2015, earning her B.A. in Creative Writing and Studio Art, with a concentration in cheap red wine. Sarah’s work has previously appeared in Every Writer’s Every Day Poems, Snapping Twig, The Screech Owl, The Alembic, Copley Hall of Art, and Hunt-Cavanagh Gallery. For more, see her website, www.artworkbysarah.com, or follow her @fluent_SARAcasm.