The Future

Grant Chemidlin

We’re standing on a hilltop.

From here, if you squint your eyes, you can just

see it, he says.

Is it small because of distance? I ask,

or because—decay—so much of it already

fallen away?

I’m not sure, he says.

I stare at the sky & a long, gray cloud

fills me.

Quick, he says, lie down.

So I do.

He takes off my shoes

& with

a gentle push—I roll

slow, at first,

then faster, then laughter

tumbles out like

paper birds.

to find a way to wake the time

- rosie stockton

silent, as always

- rosie stockton

it is possible all déjà vu is intergenerational

   we had learned it once but have forgotten

      & we can’t explain it when it’s there

- rosie stockton

it’s so slow moving—my understanding of you and my

self

- rosie stockton

do not touch me, especially

not with your eyes

- rosie stockton

O mother

there is a violence

in naming

in showing up

to say

can we love with inadequate politics?

apart and pained?

- Rosie Stockton

O Plato my Plato

I’m calling off our sessions

I’m blocking your image

- Rosie Stockton

I am citizen of your fiction

- Rosie Stockton

 A prisão dos nomes

You love your brother,

now suddenly you can hardly stand

the love flooding you for your brother,

who’s not beside you or behind or

ahead

- Philip Levine

Fixed vortex on the far

Tip, riveting stones, air,

All of it, together.

- Sylvia Plath 

And still the heaven

Of final surfeit is just as far

From the door as ever.

- Sylvia Plath