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CAROLINE CREW
OCCASIONAL POEM
preference for lemon pudding over lemons
is what I name my most precious video /
I’m a cam girl / you can watch me
arrange these myriad threads / gold
through orange / I’ve shredded citrus
with my teeth / that isn’t extra / when I
braid them in my hair / I can jump rope /
life has not given me lemons / I made
these myself / I pee with the door open /
it does my part for society / one that
is confused by borders / I want to get out
of the shower and feel an important
email is waiting / not a bowl of oranges /
do you believe hands made this bowl /
it is extremely flat in colour / a blue / outside
a sky undresses / more in touch with its
feminine side / it weeps / are you watching
me still / here on the bed / for another
$5/hour I’ll put on sky / get all wet
SLIP PEEL
& though we are impossible water
moored in these skin sacks
& when shredded back to it
I value my own skin most goldly.
I try to imagine it half empty,
a room lost with its seating.
Come in, come in: we are gathered
here today. This slip peel made
motion. In the light what do
you see empty? A space made
wanting, unkempt & clear.
Internal praise is a kind
of forgiveness. Blanket apology
for what else I hold in.
OCCASIONAL POEM
itching the grass / I give what I get /
nails swished to sharp / dagger /
a carpet lays down willingly for you /
and you / perform the function
for which you were made/ sweeping
green from the aeroplane / international
regard for plant life / bouquet /
have I made enough of myself/
a carpet laid down / bring the outside
in / this is what design blogs tell
you about / wellbeing / one house
plant saves hell / to grow up /
I plant grass seeds in a stream /
abandoning before I abandon /
the function of saturation is to make
your eyes jealous / of your iPhone
pictures / the function of grass
is repetition / walk on by / you
think / walk on by the mess / litter
of your life / walk on / past the spit
of get on this dick / to grow up / to something/
something beyond your function /
Caroline Crew is the author of PINK MUSEUM (Big Lucks, 2015), as well as several chapbooks. Her poetry and essays appear in Conjunctions, Salt Hill Journal, and Black Warrior Review, among others. Currently, she is pursuing a PhD at Georgia State University, after earning an MA at the University of Oxford and an MFA at UMass-Amherst. She's online here: caroline-crew.com.