SUMMER POLTERGEISTS AND/OR BILDUNGSROMAN

ROBIN GOW

Television me with your static love poem.

The glass of milk balanced on my forehead, breaks

and the pieces clean themselves. White like

perfume or porcelain. I’m keeping my closet.

All ghosts are born in June’s humid glow when I first

started gendering my fears. Him him him him.

Now it’s July and nothing is safe from glare and insect.

I want to be terrified. We watch horror movies

mid-day when the sun has nothing better to do.

I am thirteen and already I want

to be lifted by dead thoughts. Already

I count my fingers and talk the horror movies

down from their video. I want

the holy grasp of a physical-ghost.

Silverware bends like eyebrows and I hurriedly

try to bend it back. My neck is a spoon throat.

The movie starts over from the beginning

only this time I am the girl in yard. A portal asks me

how I plan to stay corporeal. I want nothing

to do with the basement or the attic.

Mothers don’t believe you until hell

is too close to keep away. Horror brimming

from the corners of every room.

I don’t sleep. I check the closet for him.

He stands taller than the roof. He looms

like a pair of stockings. We are going

to cleanse the space. We are going to ignore

seam in the walls. The sewing machine

teaches itself to laugh. I am thirteen going on

fourteen. Sometimes, I walk down the stairs

and my family shutters. Looks right through me

as I poltergeist through the downstairs

in search of a cemetery.

SAW / LIMB

you asked to elude ligament & bone

the cassette tape spins more promises

in this task you are alone

dismantle all your opposites

the cassette tape spins more promises

a finger turned a fray

dismantle all your opposites

all your anatomy on display

a finger turned a fray

and sistering all on into the night

all your anatomy on display

extract body from body, bite from bite

and sistering all on into the night

in this task you are alone

extract body from body, blight from blight

you asked to elude ligament & bone

Listen to Robin read "Summer Poltergeists and/or Bildungsroman" and "Saw / Limb" below: