Zoe Brezsny

Substance

the cold uncomfortable chew

of a pastel trident stick

the absence of something important

the jittery grind of four cherry cokes

the raw nerve of a conversation 

about nothing

a woman in ice blue contacts

and a shining vinyl coat tells me

heal or be destroyed

you’re on GHB in a hoarder’s room 

sending videos in the dark

you’re sober three years 

stroking horses on a hill

I’m in a photoshoot of her imagination

with fuzzy lilac carpet you can sink your arms in

miraculous disintegration

Lie down with me a faded flower a braid a foot by my face

her username is aurel sex

like aura or oral, a puffed pastry in hand, a basket of lemons

a shimmering real backdrop

I’m alive again but the world is crumbling

her roots are showing

pale mousey creeping under her jet black

box of dye

it’s better this way, undone

the mouth of my favorite god

murmurs through a megaphone

on a beach I’ve only accessed

in a wet dream

I cry with the trees she says

because they never stop listening

Trees live in my fantasies

(After Hart Crane)

Hanging out with you in my dream

you were glowing

A sapphire letter  lust   

Slippery visual 

cybersex forests

sanguine fluid

suspended in silky thistle

to trace the visionary company of love, its voice   

How many times a day do you think

of paradise in an image

You spoke to me from the center  point        

Gentle-wise

giving off strong vibration auras

that smelled of musk sap and wild cherry

Illicit understory

sun on your back

in emerald green robes, gold crown

4 inch spike heel

a soft spot in the soil

Zoe Brezsny is a poet living and working in New York. She is the author of Earthworks (Land and Sea, 2019) and Ecstasy (Topos Press, 2021), an audio cassette of poems by her and Ben Fama.