Swoon
Banded chest Waist I become
I Electrode medusa Releasing words
A character Skitters off My face
Silver creases Where the words
Were An absence quilt Piecing together
Fiction Then Biting it back
The words Skritching Along a wire
You are sorry For former Selves
Lost Collecting leeks You gather
Them to soft Shelves Writing is a
Sweet reward But for what You’d rather
Release An I A lathe
Return to a city Avoiding And wanting
Pity’s sight How signatures
Have changed Forcing What are you
Making A shiver Being understood
Medicine You say Skrittering heart
Projecting Into river facing Mirror
Ink in water If I were A writer Or if
You wanted To be a writer What would
You yearn for Most Order a world
The longing of tea You watch Words
Scatter Kites Flags flying blank
Glee scraps What you were Trying to
Forget Shy from Decisions Depth of field
Let Those spunky eyes Ply you
Stubborn fingers Soothing twitch
Let your Beautiful brain Skritter the sky
—
Stephanie Anderson is the author of several poetry books and chapbooks, most recently Bearings (New Michigan Press/DIAGRAM) and If You Love Error So Love Zero (Trembling Pillow Press). She is also the editor of Women in Independent Publishing: A History of Unsung Innovators, 1953–1989 (University of New Mexico Press), the co-editor of All This Thinking: The Correspondence of Clark Coolidge and Bernadette Mayer (University of New Mexico Press and Eclipse Archive), and the founding editor of Projective Industries (a chapbook press that ran from 2008–2018). Recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Annulet, Antiphony, Fence Steaming, Gulf Coast, and elsewhere. They live and work in Suzhou, China.