Gain Powers and Learn Desperation
Just like that it was gone –
the casually engendered peace
–
it had been as subtle
as insulation.
But the video game blinks
a blaring directive.
Gain powers and learn desperation.
So I cut through the Won Kok parking lot.
I have made pink clouds my background
and to the up-left, a strand of
pigeons, still on their wire
in the rain
.
I hunker down, blurry with prednisone.
Lupus lamentably does not mean
I’m a werewolf –
merely that I have been bitten by a wolf –
(on the face, ill-favored)
.
I am coursing along the wide street.
Mrs. Lin the psychic resides in a hut
of raspberry pavlova, and
she is In.
I listen to a song, hoping for
provocation
but find it both
very weird
and just ok.
.
I call him my sweet
log of marzipan. I call him
my pavlova. Chewy.
To be loved and
also sick – this
is a new vibe –
a rosemary tree
a moth in a beer stein
two socks, jack frost
apartment in the morning
.
I keep getting hit by the desire to
make a tent of my jacket
and just hope I’m forgiven
I suppose I will never stop thinking
1,
I suppose I will never stop thinking
about it, and why would I want to
when the grain of your love,
rubbing against my gums, is
the only thing that reminds me
of the esoteric world
dying, but extant
like a phenomenon in Minoa
or a willingness to
entertain belief.
And there were a number of
Minoas,
each singular, like a
scattering of baby octopuses.
2,
It would be nice if belief
could be obtained, like a
moody draught,
or caught like a cold.
I would stake out and
then approach my
neighborhood witch.
I don’t need the thing,
I’d say, just give me
an inch of clearance
an inch of space, an airfield –
I’ll tend it in anticipation
of the thing’s arrival
if it never comes that’s fine
at least I made room for it
I didn’t say no
Allison Hummel is based in Southern California. Her work has recently appeared in Oxidant Engine, the Operating System, SLANT and Sorority Mansion. Work is forthcoming from Francis House, Cordite Poetry Review, and Flag + Void. Assimilating to Twitter: @allisonhummel4
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