๐™พ ๐™ฒ ๐™ฒ ๐š„ ๐™ป ๐š„ ๐™ผ

โ€ข โ€ข

Admissions |ย by Chris McCreary

What thoughts might arrive so late
in these milligrams : youโ€™ve nodded off
again, the dream of a less gentle treason
the only reason to even get out of bed.

Akin to pleasure, the whiff of something
wicked amid the caramel apples
& the cigarette butts. Headlights cut across
the tree line. This journey is precursor

for the rest of your life : up these hills,
down that embankment,
then three days spent blindfolded
& chewing Xanax like Tic Tacs

across the salt flats. Scorpio season
seems to mean cradling your porcelain horse
outside the conference centerโ€™s
VIP entrance. Around their table,

conversation dribbles
& nobody thought to bring towels
or even a mop. A fork stuck in you
doesnโ€™t mean youโ€™re done :

itโ€™s just a blunder
once thought to butter you up. The knife slides.
An egg gags at its own texture. A grilled cheese
seeks to devour its own crust.

 


 

Chris McCreary is the author of four books of poems, the most recent of which isย [ neรผro / mรคntic ]ย (Furniture Press 2014). He’s also the co-author, along with Mark Lamoureux, ofย Maris McLamoureary’s Dictionnaire Infernalย (Empty Set Press 2017), a chapbook of collaborative poems based on a 19th century guidebook to various demons, devils, and other menaces. Follow him on Instagramย atย @chrisixnay.