TWO POEMS
and the boulder says
kid it’s all just a happy accident
the world loves its balance it’ll
crash down on you too someday
a lucky like you does not the
world warrant dirty stupid
messy sloppy unshaven legs
stained in a church girl shoes
untied can’t make up her mind
wants the world but can’t take it
crumb of many names
without a home
and i say
yes.
i carry this with me
i am acutely aware of my
place in things. i know that
the world is not meant to carry
the whole of me.
i want to forget how
the sky looks when it
snows. i want to forget
how all things linger.
i want to become a maze
or a cemetery or a clenched
fist. i want to become a tomb for my dead cat. a picnic table.
a crater. i want to become anything but a girl. i want to look into the sun and not flinch. i want to become wilderness. i want to be a
deer in the rain. a bike rack. an
electrical box. i want to unspool my
insides.
i want to fit in this world and mean it.
THE MOON SAYS SHE’S GONNA TEACH ME HOW TO LIVE
& WE’RE ON A COUCH IN NAMPA
BEHIND A DUMPSTER LISTENING TO ALL THE WAYS WE HAVE SURVIVED
THE RAILROAD TRACKS BEHIND US ARE IMPATIENT & SCREAMING
RECKLESS I LOVE YOU’S & GOODBYE’S
*********
& HALF THE PEOPLE WHO WERE THERE ARE DEAD TO US NOW ANYWAY,
& ISN’T THERE SOME KIND OF IRNOY IN MEETING YOUR BEST FRIEND IN AN
ABANDONED PARKING LOT
WHERE WE SCRAPED OFF ALL THE MEN WHO HAVE HURT US
& NOW IT IS 2 AM & SUMMER IS KILLING US ALL
WE HAVEN’T DEFROSTED FROM THE TRAUMA OF WINTER
I DON’T KNOW IF WE WILL ANYTIME SOON
*******
SO WE DRIVE TO THE BENCH THAT OVERLOOKS THE CITY &
WE WATCH THE WAY THE MOUNTAINS LAUGH TEETH FIRST
& I MEMORIZE EVERYTHING THEY SAY SO THAT I DO NOT
FORGET THIS MOMENT
IT FEELS LIKE WE ARE THE ONLY ONES STILL LIVING & FOR ONCE
THAT DOESN’T FEEL LIKE SUCH A BAD THING
Kate Wilson lives in Salt Lake City, Utah and is a senior at Westminster College. They are the Editor in Chief of Issue 56 of ellipsis… Literature & Art, work as an interview correspondent with Half Mystic Press and Royal Rose, and serve as a poetry editor for Rose Quartz Magazine. Three of their poems were selected for the Academy of American Poets Student Poetry Prize and their work can be found with Pressure Gauge Press, The Albion Review, and Parentheses Journal, among others.