Author: rloudon

my fortune reads YOU NEED SOLITUDE
my hair smells like wood smoke
I shiver and shiver collapse in on myself
a star a sad biscuit a white fox

this is a day like any other
the tortilla spoke in tongues
the onion revealed an oily Jesus
the neighbor flew her baby like a kite

what happens if I can’t go outside

          1. Disease of the blood
          2. Disease of the skin
          3. Disease of the eye
          4. Disease of the foot
          5. Disease of the tongue

I have business with alien forces

Oh Monte Christo can we skip the ballet
and sit on the sidewalk near Pike and 1st to watch the parade
the cars have bonnets the size of galleons
stand up straight

try the fried bread
try the pinkish gum
try the paradiddle
try not to puke on your shoes
try to be more tender

There is no bell box on the door
lantern light casts down hard
near my mealy heart
I want to volunteer a standard
method of gloriously happy
geography is elastic night
reverses and doubles itself
seafoam covers my feet
then pulls back for hours
I rinsed my hair in a tide pool
shivered cloudy with rumors
of snow and the pivotal day
John Lennon was shot
I was eight months pregnant
a dinosaur driving back
through ash the volcano at
mount saint helens exploded
my husband never cried he was a dry man
but I sluiced my guts all over the radio
the car seat and into my strawberry milkshake
I’m older now than you and it’s no good
in my head I’m not ready to open the door
I hide in the bathtub when guests
arrive cry for ten minutes in there
sucker punched I didn’t expect all the judgement
I can’t even type it now I built a fire
it was so cold I could see my breath both cats
underneath me like rhizomes my head
is a crawlspace there is only room for old
rusted women who write about gardens

and sleep by fires like dogs filling their lungs

I forgot how to bleed CRACK air filled my fat pocket fell continued falling yelled at the ambulance man HEY THAT’S A SAPLING they tramped out of the yard my forest smacked me in the face every 3 inches brain spilled 4H animals acorns squish knees DON’T FRET head wounds bleed a lot A LOT look! my hoof grew together HAHA shut up SHUT UP! I can’t breathe inside the imperium serviette on my head while they glued the lessons and nonsense back in.

Did the library of Alexandria hold up
her arms and rustle as you jumped
books held in your soft mouth
or Eiffel a sick light that never stopped
spinning as glass slivers opened
along her iron arms such frothy
language held you as burnt goddesses
zipped past became statues
a game you played when you were a small
wolf caricature licking mercury
from a blue plastic bowl
that endless yelp in your sugar
frosted arms