American Sonnet #61

did you leave me here to collapse 

or was your intention to transform 

me into an elk? it’s important to 

know because we used to park

at the waterfront in Red Bank 

and make out and there was 

that one time when a cop car

pulled up right next to us and 

it looked like I was all alone in 

the back seat of my car and you

really seemed to … well, you 

had a flair for the dramatic, and

i often behaved like a child, blood

sugar issues and all of that shit. 

Wraith

I’ve been privy to your bold designs, 

Cold-called by piss merchants in

The dead days of spring, and seen 

Your type on the esplanade, 

Gumming yourselves mute, with 

Expectations of recognition.

And who am I, you may ask, 

So granular in my critiques of 

Pure season, when just last week 

I was pulling my skivvies on 

With a pair of grilling tongs? 

Hey, even a cool breeze on flayed skin

Is better than a hot sleep with dreams of you. 

Even a dozen spins 

Around the town’s worst rotary, 

Exit signs obscured by the 

Shimmying smog you call a

Marine layer, won’t leave me as dizzy

As one playback of your voicemails.

Selected Ambient Works

An outstretched and oversized-

Darlin’ you can kill kidnap me-

Kind of hand. Ringless 

In the dull light, sunbleached

An afterthought. The roving

Cloudburst with ark-making

Deluge revisits your pathway.

It’s unusual for the snakes 

To roost in the fickle strawbeds 

Of your youth. Time-released 

madness always often tricks 

The lizard brain into a ceasefire. 

Oh honey honeyed ointment, 

Leave us sticky and commendable

Laurence Lillvik (Portland, OR) is the editor of “Skullcrushing Hummingbird,” an international arts and literature zine. A new full-length collection of poems, “Catharsis Is Never Fully Shorn From Glee,” is forthcoming from Trident Press in the spring of 2026. His chapbook “Criterion” (Greying Ghost Press) was a featured small press title at Powell’s Books. His poetry has also appeared in several literary journals and DIY poetry chapbooks. Musically, Laurence is the founder of KalloHumina, an umbrella project for solo work and live improvised collaborations. He’s worked in Public Libraries for over two decades. IG: larstarts / skullhum.com