Forbidden, the sign said. Fine,
we’ll have a little death brush
then come back with a sack
of pillow lava—fist-sized rocks
to use as door stops. I’ll go into
a detailed account of Civil War
battle casualties, though no one
wants that window, I’m fact-
bound. Fog wedged all around.
It doesn’t taste too sweet, so open up
and let the grey in—Love, Life (writ
in rips of cloud without English).
Huddled by a hilltop bunker, we
find graffitied, God invented menses.
IMMEDIATELY AFTER
Heat oversaw the small room. We wore
beads of sweat. C. had what looked like ringworm
on his torso since I’d used my teeth
all week so he’d flinch reaching for a glass.
We bought a mid-sized hole
and named it California Rust. Trees grew like trees
a kindergartener drew—fluffy sheep
fleshed out the leaf.
Swinging antique billy clubs the way you stun a fish
before earning the privilege of its guts,
I’d fill the air with pheromones—
produce musk, lingering pine. Put on pants. Bring
the door down. Lay it flat. Float hoping
Agloolik bobbed up (god who stops boats via biting)
bringing us smelt, cod and pike in wet
Victorian flower language.
WEARING SATEEN CIGARETTE PANTS REINFORCED AT THE CROTCH
Change one thing in this succulent patch. Try cutting up a lengthy pause,
She wrote and tucked her journal plus binoculars into
her bomber jacket pocket, slipped
out through the fence gap like a roseate love egg, past plume of the Plum
Point Power Energy Station. Draped in chemical glamour,
a walking-urn urge towards historic cooperation with armed locals
led her home, past Hog Pen BBQ and road crow, long
lay it sunning, fun fact. Full of full
body love for the lush smoke over everything joy -riddled/ghost- riddled:
is this bitch fit for bliss or do I need to pull another lever? went the Delta.
Rennie Ament is the winner of the 2018 Yellowwood Prize in Poetry from Yalobusha Review, a finalist for the 2018 Anzaldúa Poetry Prize from Newfound, and a nominee for both the Pushcart Prize and Best New Poets. Her work has appeared in the minnesota review, Bat City Review, DIAGRAM, Sixth Finch and Colorado Review, among others. She has received fellowships from the Millay Colony, the Saltonstall Foundation, the New York State Summer Writers Institute and the Vermont Studio Center. She lives in Harlem and online at www.rennieament.com