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honey. listen here. you can’t see
or know who i am, but i’ve been thinking
about this gap

about this refusal to love anything else.
about you, i guess. about you. i wish
the brain was more callous than it is, so
i might push this meandering want as far
away from me as possible. but all i can do is want.
& watching is pretty close to that

i wish touching were possible
through an ocean, or a screen. wish something
magical was arriving, so filled with grief i’m
your damn apostle, you are as scintillating as
wet lips on marble,

a pearl smudged to utter decadent completion.

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future emily,

you’re here. hello, and thank you. it’s the nineteenth of july in the year 2022. you are currently (as of writing) on a gap year. you have been enjoying the immense rest.

             i have many questions. mostly, i want to know what you are doing. are you happy? are you grateful. how is everyone? mum; dad; the rugrats. how’s your health? i’m sure you’ve been thinking about that a lot, too. it’s always so up and down.

             when i think about the future, i’m not sure exactly what excites me most. i’m thrilled and nervous about all of it. i have my moments of intense restlessness because i often want everything, all at once, right now. are you still impatient like that? or do you have it all?

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19/10/21 midway through creation

i go around in circles all the time. my teacher said to stop writing in hypotheticals & immediately i knew she was right & that she had found the little spiral centre of me that i had been hiding not-too-solemnly. it is hard for me to detach myself from the hypothetical, most of my days i live in there. before i knew any of this (of writing or understanding or knowing there was a world at all around me) i knew that committing myself to one idea was an utter travesty. of course there are ideas now that i hold close to me. but usually i hang barely-suspended & wishing i was okay with being a pendulum.

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to have

oh please ! how unbearably boring. to want
is where all flowers bloom, despite this sauna
of good-feeling. what i have is safe & sound,
what i want coyly eludes me. eternal desire
plagued all the world’s poets, despite all the
world’s beauty; i want the entire room desirous,
a life of endless dreaming, half-fulfilled, omniscient,
all-yearning, all-fiending.

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match

you struck the match—now swallow it.
if you can sympathise, we might just be in
the right place to make a wish. or be a prophet,
lay your head down. forget what made you
comfortable.

it is deeper now, so much darker than before
your head—solely unbalanced and wringing the towel
of insecurity. i have not made up my mind, or
blown out the candles. sometimes, it feels
like all that matters is the charcoal
caked against your tongue.

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advice from an older sister

who am i to give it ? i’m pathetic, i’m half-
finished; i’ve not discovered a poem useful;
just like He, i do agree, i’ve not yet
made a thing that’s lasting

so when brother comes to me, little seeker,
i’m all surprise, i’m all a bit tender,
and taken aback and unprepared and
wholly ego, only trembling

i know that i know that i know nothing
or something very close to that.
but still, i give what’s only borrowed
my next best guess, my shot at it.

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olive tree

if carnality is inevitable, i’m hoping
it’s lusty & not homicidal

there’s a violence going around, kind of
insidious. yet so much of what hurts us is
so obvious about itself

if i had a magic coin, i wouldn’t spend it
on diamonds or drugs. i’d throw it
down a wishing well & hope it grew
an olive tree

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isabel…

after the movies, but before the train station,
we hugged goodbye. i said, see you, like i always do;
unthinking, she hummed i love you,
then gasped. the perfect casual accident.

we parted ways in blushing silence,
my shock too thick to shake. though
across percussive tracks, an engine chanted
what i couldn’t…

you too you too you too
all the way home, you too, you too.

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Mr Gobbledygook

we had hung your portraits / right and left
in celebration / and after death
we sold them since / your music was no longer with us
your vinyls dusty / guitar lifeless

but five years later / walking through
an antique store / i spotted you

the painting could / in every way
be taken as / the very same
but Dad / this image was not you
scribbled eyes aflame and horns now fitted
and an extra set / of jet black tresses

O Father / your most final jest !

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who else hates a first draft ?

O, that is my hand heavenbound. i listen to what
i say & it collapses like fruitcake, like sand,
exactly as sustenant. a first draft might as
well be a first relative or first spider—just as
vulnerable, just as terrifying. all day a first
draft is being made, body-hot & uncomfortable.
sometimes, i’m ashamed of what i might trade
for a second, a third, or, God forbid, a darling
to save.

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2

two-two was too satisfying. too late, it
was, & two-two too chilling at two past
two in the morning. too much wetness,
& hotness: a transgression too far gone
(twice) & a pulsing also doubly-done.
a little longer & it would’ve been two-three,
or three-two, or three-three at three &
who knows after that. i’d reached two
first, too hazy & plunging to hold back,
& hers came quickly after, too blasphemous
to handle. how to continue ? how to get
accustomed to the two-two parallel
that split me so prismatically ? i’m too
worried for my numbers, too pampered
to see a single digit ever again !

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silence, prolonged sinking

sorry, i was distracted. sylvia plath
was the world’s last poet, & her awful
daddy was the second last. there is much
& hardly anything to write about nowadays.

i was promised a good poem at the end of
a million shitty ones. true, i’ve not been counting,
but statistics could, for once, take pity.

if i had only one page left, & the last signs
of vital ink, i’d breathe in deep, compose myself,
& fill the space with

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slow

when all the days blend together,
as if thickening in a pan. in all the mess,
i’m sure i miss a week at least, a month
at best. i gather

bulbs of wednesdays & add winter
nights to taste. i stir occasionally, invite
my friends around, & we pretend
we haven’t changed.

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actual adoration

my irises turn to hearts & i write a word
for the first time. i’ve never gone so blurry-eyed
in under a second flat.

how thrilling and divine,
the exactmost pleasure of the poet…
to write about you, lyrically; to know
you could (indulgently) enjoy it…

honestly ?

a poem can never be helped, it
walks into the room at the same moment you do
this flush so close to permanence

have i told you that i adore you yet ?

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galaxy

where should boys be looking—
at the ground or at the sky?
in the hand—the talking brick—
or deep in someone else’s eyes?

should boys be polite? and
understand? atone for things—
the where & when? these boys
are halfway gone already—

should we forgive them? and again?

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yep, another

he’s very sweet and very dreamy on stage. despite the crowd of us which earnestly feels like the entire population of hawai’i has gathered to bask in his light, it feels like all night he is looking at me. i know it can’t be true or possible or even reasonable but it feels real, as real as anything, as real as midnight. and in this midnight i am rendered amazed and perplexed by his ability to be or transmit or imply sunlight when he sings and moves and watches me the whole time.

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to have someone love you

in the slack dark of the dampest, most
tired spring evening—while they are trying
to sleep & you’re rambling—

& the day after, too, in the heathland,
between blocks of mushroom & the crunch
of pulverising shoe—while you unravel & they
are so natural in listening—

to have someone paint the needle-thin petals
on every flower for you—to have someone love
you so easy—to remind you of the miracle
of breathing

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to abundance

i’m so surprised & unconvinced
about the finiteness of the world

the truth still is:
if you want it all,
you can have it

all, you can have it,
more? whatever you want,
it’s yours

whatever you’re asking
you’re given – whatever it is,
delivered; if you’d surrender

to abundance.

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on the pulse of the earth

there is a faultline that runs from you to me. i’ve taken it upon myself to be a detective, an exploring nuisance, my index finger dragging through the darkness of the earth to map out a path to you. if you’ve ever listened to the mid-morning birds you know what i mean. i’d dedicate my life to wandering if i could, make sure all roads led to you. one foot is one step & i’m trading secrets with other travellers, hoping wisdom can be transferred in a handshake or whisper.

there is an intense desire that forces in me a type of unwinding; your wonderful laughing & musical eyes inspire cliche. calling out cliche doesn’t excuse it, but there’s something about being disgustingly in love that seems to turn the whole world forgivable. when i’m not trawling through sugar-coarse soil, i spend obscene amounts of time with one hand over my stomach, one hand over my chest, trying desperately to separate or soothe the vibrations that threaten to turn me completely electric. you could use me to power your computer, your little singing toothbrush, your stack of unopened mail. if there’s one justice in my life it might involve turning my useless fingers into something productive.

if your body is a vessel i’m amorphous, a formless sludge around your contained-ness. nothing is as pathetic or trying as someone attempting to do a completed action. have you ever thought about the space between the page & the poem ? most nights, i dream of being that impossible, & that lovely.

to oil a shadow

is it possible to oil a shadow ?
to slickly soak the blank smoothness,
indulge in the curious essence of
the divine void divide…

been ruminating on & in the shadows
of how they’re not quite holes (maybe that
i provide) but still, still, still
an absence…

& lastly, how it could be true—
well, now, if thinking wishfully—
that perhaps the dark could slot right in,
eclipse this slant-shaped beam of mine.

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whatever he did in those leather pants

that night, i wish i’d been there to see it. a draught,
talcum-heavy & him vibrating those metal strings,
i’d seize the thick heat of the musical Him. i’d
marvel at the voice that would not have recognised
itself twenty years earlier—at the homebody gone
carnal piñata—among the Greek chorus of shrieking
pubescence. & of all the things to see, after everything:
the metronome, typewriter, the new-fangled colour TV,
the christmas specials, & cash grabs disguised as movies,
after the worldwide wet dreams—i’d have wanted to see
the little death that night. i would have little died & died if
i’d had a chance to see it, to see

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ANGEL

it feels too fresh to be with
you. i splinter my teeth, my tongue flops
outta my jaw. let’s face it: you’ve

unhinged me. i’m not surprised –
there’s a possession happening a few
blocks from sunrise – not exactly roses &

cuddly. whatever happened to
your wings, angel ? someone
swindled you out of a halo.

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inertia

my home comes from your home
you let me in & trick me out
i hope i am not trauma tised
at least once a day it happens.

if your bones make my bones—
c’mon, into the fishbowl you
go. it’s not so easy, this sleeping.
poetry is nothing doing.

doing nothing can be easy
if you suck air from out of an
exhaust pipe. the bathtub,
the fireplace, the microwave—

at least once a day it happens.

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sugarcane | a cento

The first time someone called me “sweetheart”,
I sold my library, my piano. I boarded a train
tremulously in the direction of the beach.
I had the transport all to myself.

Lovely enchanting language, sugar-cane,
if you eat too much of it, you want more—
one part surge, another spray. One part the urging
you know by name.

Into this noise sailed
caged birds that sing, birds that talk—
and say that a poet wakes up one morning
for a single, beautiful word.

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unrequited

i (understand that which you try to obscure) wish (for everything, but mostly your (fool that i was to underestimate) dilation) i (love the silhouette (you sink me in) more than i can (if you let me) say) was enough (of the pity, the (sweetness of your arcane transgressions) recovery) for (the dimensions of desire you’ve solely (& no doubt languished over) trapped me in) you

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this half

i’ve been looking for a cat fight
for some rough / glittery / bone-smashing fun
for us to wrestle & leave ex-best-friends

been looking for a pair of knuckles
to kiss, with my lips all swelled & bloody
for a musical note to be sawed almost off

for a reminder that violence owns
of hell, this half, this half

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the Experience

i do i very much do want
the Experience. i want it so much
that it’s become its own Experience

oh my gosh at all this wanting. &
all the having, all the time. the world splits
open like a fresh pomegranate, the Experience
bursts continuously in my mouth

the new moon is a fresh citrus just
Experienced perfectly on the riper side & sliced,
firmly slides into the fizzy cocktail of night

what a wonder, what all life’s good for
this Experience, this fruity segment of mine

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alphabet sonnet

AFFAIR ADORED ADVICE ASLEEP ALONE
BEGAN BENEATH BIZZARRE BUFFET BOUQUET
CAFFEINE CREATES CONFUSED CONCISE COLOGNE
DEFACED DEFEAT DENOUNCED DEFAULT DECAY

ENOUGH ESCAPE EXCUSE EVENT EMBAYED
FATIGUE FORGIVE FORBID FONDUE FORTELL
GROTESQUE GALORE GENTEEL GAMETE GRENADE
HEREBY HARASS HIMSELF HARPOON HOTEL

INSPECT INSIDE IMBIBE INGORE INTO
JEROME JUSTINE JIANG JOQUAIN JAMAL
KORAN KIBBUTZ KUWAIT KEBAB KAZOO
LIQUEUER LAPEL LAMENT LAGOON LOCALE

MASSAGE MYSELF MATURE MALAISE MILITE
NEGATE NEGLECT NONPLUSSED NONSTICK NONWHITE

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a list of names to call your lover

1. darling peaches
2. your 2D shadow
3. midnight poem
4. a consequence of art
5. the law of increasing returns
6. Heaven’s apology
7. PIP (person in proximity)
8. lemon wedge
9. the culprit
10. part of your equation
11. your beautiful prime number
12. [lovingly redacted]
13. dreamlike representation
14. villain purple
15. the unmistakable truth
16. intoxication / soft incarnate
17. the word on the mouth of the universe

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the colour of quarks

being queer is being pleasure. it is the highest form of art. when you are queer (which is when you are always) you pity those who aren’t. being queer undoes your seatbelt—it is the stranger at your door. when you are queer, you’re so insufferably good-feeling—a bigot mourns. being queer makes you a blessing—the next day alive can be a miracle—since rising from a stupor is defiance, pure & simple. being queer is navigational—though versatility is welcome. it is eating from the dog bowl—& then surfing in stilettos. being queer is quick to suffer; both erotic & lubricious. it’s perverting prior signals—holding hands turns fetishistic. being queer is on the weekend. or it is crushed into your coffee. it’s a painless execution—with you at church, on both your knees. being queer is biodegradable (just not in the way you think). being queer is body-hot—feeling so horny that you vomit. being queer is hand on throat. a ring of bruises; righteous necklace. being queer’s a melting ice cube—forever sliding down your sternum. being queer is proof of bullets—or else the shore of foamy leisure. being queer is subatomic—inextricable from nature.

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city graffiti

the train feels like a lullaby. is there
a ghost or is that me ? music swirling
imperceptibly. i need to stop falling
in love with every stranger that has
a pen behind their ear.

the sky is out today ! just for you. or
was it me ? the clouds make soliloquy
easy. i can’t imagine being any more
tender. pressing on the obscure part
of the two-way mirror, setting fire to
a skirt.

this metal curve is a recipe for sea-
sickness. should i put you underwater ?
or wet you just enough to kiss ?

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PAST, PRESENT, FUTURE TENSE

when i say pink i mean a loving deity. poetry
makes for unwinding an insinuation. i am decidedly
hard to understand & obtuse for the pleasure of it. so
when i say lightning i mean ether in my hand. when
i say ocean blue, i mean the spirit in feathers, &
floating through a higher field. when i say lavish
i mean stacked rings, frosted cupcakes. eh maybe
obscurity is my trendy defence mechanism. i
guess when i say chemistry, i mean undulating
waves. when i say organised i mean a hurting world
trying to hammer out its growing pains. but listen
when i say black lives matter. i mean
black lives matter.

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windows

listening ! i’m so lovely in listening
with you. oh how there’s a dripping sink
here somewhere. oh how i’m desperate to
believe it.

but to know it ! what language did you
speak ? how did the fire know to find you ?
something ripped up by the roots. waiting
patiently for loving lucid !

of course there’s such a thing as wonder.
here, & now, you make it obvious, impossible
to resist.

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& sinker

(he kills me when
he does) me like that. i’m

coolly out of breath, waiting
for his magic hand to brand

me back open again (hooking
my thumb around the fishing

pole. his steel splinter), only
deliciously caught & unassuming

is up the righter flesh in mine undone,
& the death that calls—like i did, once.

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baby

what would you do if you weren’t afraid
i’m askin’ i’m feelin’ tender
it happens in my body. i go blue or dark blue
where that spectre haunts me, reminds me of
a place i’m not allowed to go

please make an exception
make me your poor exception

& if you weren’t at all afraid
if the world unfolded, right in front of you
what would you do ?
what would you do.

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in an hour

in an hour i can make it happen four or five times. maybe six—i’m overzealous. got nothin’ better to do in the hot cold night; nothing more singular than reaching, eyes shut, screwed shut. i’d like to think that some words, like some numbers, are more greedy than others—definitely more tempted; overwhelmed & desirous. tell me not to escalate & i will honour that, only for as long as i can hold before dissolving, never to be seen again for the next two or five minutes. an hour is a lot of time to make a thing happen, i’ve got time for an hour if it involves making lewd decisions. no other path could be as frightful or delirious, unweaving slick from tyrant digits—no more i’m absolutely stuffed i’m sure i’m mumbling as faithlessly as possible half-hoping to believe myself. an hour can be ravenous, borderline savage or vital-quiet in execution. do you glut yourself over & over, do you turn into a pulpy mess ? a justified question from no voice in particular & it is exactly knowing, only speaks for the pleasure of igniting something no less temperate than the goddamn world on fire.

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if my brother had taken another look around pt. 2

well, i’d be luckier than leon. i’d not remember
those thick stormclouds, or the lightning that
bloomed, but my brother

would have seen it all, & we’d talk,
bright-lit under a shell-pink august moon.

i would listen. i’d drive in circles, make sure
he missed each later flight. i would ask for
proof of rest. ask he forgive the world
its tenderness.

we’d watch the sky, then we’d be quiet.
i’d point at stars above his head. each time
i saw his eyes dip down, i would
insist he look again.

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