STRATAGEM FOR SURVIVING IN A PLAGUE STATE #10: NOUVEAU LUXE

the yawnlike longing

betwixt the ashen

learning an illicit desire

& knowing you’ll never

accept yourself

or act upon it

{{{except yourself

when acting upon it}}}

o knit hands of the sunwarmed

on carpetlike pause

stretch the muscles

deeply into nonbeing

acres of raingowns

acts of the apostates

in a scathing dissent

i rehearse the rhetorical

scaffolding for a plea

that can’t be homage

lactic with ache / the caesura 

of a photo op / the skin /

censured by light

unhaired degreased

desalted & soaked

the sunwarned swarm

immomentous seconds

make monsters murmurate & part

& the dread becomes the brand



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Steve Halle is the editor of co*im*press (http://www.coimpress.com/)