Cabin Named Laura
I bring my hands to a splintered piano
feed the music its own teeth
Erroll Garner kneads the air
pretending to sleep
soundless black bear
picking the locks
two boys run in circles
around a pile of sticks
branches in their misty hands
little metaphors in a field
they are constructing a tower
or breaking it down
I wait a day
nothing
nothing deserves love
especially the way I’ve loved it
Mail-Order Bride: Judy
His human-sized wooden package waited for him
in the empty corner of his loft.
She’s arrived! in all her glory,
packed in polystyrene peanuts!
Her profile:
How exciting you are concerned about me. I am lucky.
If you could you would rest your head in your own lap.
I was married eight years ago but died on impact. After,
I was originally lonely. Unleavable me. And then there
was that season. Earn me several burns. Making the bed
cures an unmade bed. I would like to forget and you
are here concerned about me. I am looking for a man
who believes in everything from chewing to star. You
have seen precisely what your body can do. Watch moon?
Is she full? Is she sexy? I trust you know how to have me.
If you could how fearfully would you kiss your own cheek?
With love in his heart,
he grabbed a crowbar, cracked open the box,
and out leaped a hundred singing grasshoppers.
Scrying
Now if your heart was as big as your mouth, you’d be real
—DMX
nine dogs
from the water
this means something
if you want it to
forgive the bones
in your psychic
womb of a mouth
clairvoyant sets of
crystal fang
mercy is inevitable
let the dogs
mean the water
intuitive ripple
mercy is a womb
intelligent dark animal
brilliant shattering teeth
healing is persistent
as you need it to be
fuck penance
its canine obedience
and stalking gait
let your angel
off the leash
be the damned thing
then set the damned
thing free
finally the water
the smell
of divinity
silvering sky
and wet skin
pure howling heart
there is no one
left to hide
mercy has a shadow
you ask the moon
for your reflection
she gives you
her last breath
Nicholas Goodly is the author of Black Swim (Copper Canyon, 2022). They are a member of the performing arts platform Fly on a Wall and assistant poetry editor for The Southeast Review. Nicholas was a finalist for the 2020 Jake Adam York Prize, runner-up for the 2019 Cave Canem Poetry Prize, and recipient of the 2017 Poetry Society of America Chapbook Fellowship, among other awards.