JESSE MIKSIC
Her Sleep (Is Never Sleeping)
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Street Sounds, Receding
Icy lots and sidewalks,
Platforms and platforms —
Concrete waiting.
Going going going
Down going going
Down
Wait train, dark station
Severance segue ship scuttled,
Sung song strained,
Real arrival, rain delay.
There are like a million
Deaths in you.
Which one will you let out?
Profane Song for the Aquifer
She lingers there, picture
Of stillness o!
Sweetwater — half-hid
In measured language
Sweetwater, something
Turnt aside sunlight under
Her corneal veil, but
Her sleep is never sleeping o!
Sweetwater — carve
Your ripple in the
Wall, adjacent sheet
Of gray, you are you
Are that oscillation
Which makes matter,
Matter — penetrating
Flow, a sort of primal
Fiber-optic knowing,
O! What knowledge?
Toothy animal, o
Hungry state of play,
Who carries on her
Sweet and profane holiday —
Sweetwater! Enter us and
Dance and make us gay!
A Feast of Riches
Mine your dreams they are
A deep deep seam
What you haul out in a
Veined bucket:
Ochres of auspice,
The impregnated locust
Of singsong fish-eye refractory
A rude manufacture
Productive with the ombre
Of deep chasm string lights
An ink-dry contaminated spectrum
That loosens the binds
And lets the spiral fall
What fashions this daydream?
Who is bound in the mire,
What name
Did infinity call?
Your body the shade
Of the bounty,
The yield,
The gradient
Vertical
Sprawl.
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Siren in the Subtext
A constancy that’s
Threaded through a fabric
Pricked and gathered by a
Piercing literary eye
A child haunts
The sullied artifact,
A scent distinct, a
Glance of perfume
On the air
(A vessel runs the subtext,
Tidal laughter, passing flash
Of tricky chrome)
The perfect turn at play
With poison, fated
Meeting in the parlor light,
A salty eye that never
Wants to close
A broken musket
In the margins,
Strike a cinder,
Yellow teeth
Upon the rose
(Did you see the child?
How she dances, how
She loves to play pretend)
For you she was a
Little phrase oh how
You loved the words
That failed you
In the end.
Jesse Miksic is a graphic designer and writer living in the suburbs of Philadelphia. He spends his life writing poetry, moving various objects around the house, and having adventures with his wonderful wife and daughter. Recent placements include Praxis Magazine Online, Sky Island Journal, Bodega Magazine, and Deracine Journal.


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