From FOR THE H IN GHOST by Julia Cohen...



Not the Fact of a Burning Forest but the Scent of the Burning

A clear bottle with white           liquid or
a white bottle fat            with bloody paper & the voyeur

Something bad happens & I like
its scent             I said follow me to              the black pasture
reveal how to crunch
grass which isn’t frozen              so we can lasso whatever moves
            with our rubber-stamps so we can fertilize
what sleeps below us             so I stick
my hand down your jeans & kill
you             like justice’s torn-out-jaw
call anger the first political             emotion

Until he was four my brother spoke only one
word: rooster             until he reached the mailbox              turns to
his mother But what mail would come for me?

The white bottle wobbled in its frame like something
that could be your friend              to drain the luxury pond
            I strap my goodbye-eyes on              step back
step closer             step back              :this is reckoning

Look over the shoulder of your mother
legroom             flyleaf              try to destabilize
the center but the center
glides below you              like an angry child
drifting under a frozen pond
the smooth spleen moves             when you move

But I want to give you a new feeling             one you can’t
get rid of right away
but in the end             it’s just a white bottle
             I don’t believe that either
my wooden knife I
carve with the metal knife             it’s hard
to tuck yourself into bed so that the blanket
            folds above your shoulders


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