I was 11 and my buddy, Dennis, and I
kept hounding Coach Phillips for some chew

Even if it is addressed to you, this is a letter for me. If it were truly a letter for you, it would be written in sound, in the words that lilt on your tongue, rise a tempest in your rage,

My father inhales smoke from a lone Marlboro,
            shadowed against a sun colored like dead autumn leaves.
He gently cradles the barrel of tobacco between his pointer
            &

A Queer Translates Rilke

I long to know his self-described “epic head”
with my eyes closed. But for now, his torso
radiates from my screen like a delirious
lighthouse, like it is recharging my

Color Study, or Ode to Discomfort

It was never safe for us—
always beneath the eye is blood;
and maybe a ferocious tongue
called

i trapped pete wentz
in a pastoral landscape

Every car passing by might house a backseat scout

Were this place to close, or burn, or fall, in an earthquake, down.
Were it to flood or be bulldozed to make way for the gray &
unmusical slab of an apartment building. Were it to be

I dreamed my brother gave his dog to a friend in New York
who could better care for him. we walked into the woods

behind the wintered swim club where the swan babies
held their bonfires. I was

Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Wedding

1.    The bride was beautiful. 

2.    The bride was beautiful 
in the way brides are—
intricate updo, professional face.

3.    The first thing my

Power Lines

Spring was coming to its sap-sticky end when
you were telling me something about how they carve out
tree branches to make room for power lines.

You were moving out of your house

swang

at night i sleep next to you, your skin balmy course. like grinded down sweetgum made smooth in the sweat of the mississippi delta summer. you tear and bend at my will. your spine disjoints

EMOTION CASINO

welcome to your life 
your face changes as you watch
outside the frame
among the distractions
you are right now
a body prone to emotion 
Google Maps 
attraction 
you never

I render a coin

for something 

I forgot

the sky 

scratching itself 

into decency

when I

wake up 

always rattling 

around

in my skin

a new aesthetic 

I

Rhinoceros 

          I don’t recommend mistaking everything for love but it’s been interesting 
          —Alex Dimitrov

there are wild elephants
in the country
wrote Marco

take a lemon

the world feels less and less familiar most days
sometimes it is difficult to identify where i truly am
sometimes it is a challenge not to let the ugly parts
infiltrate the joyous

so long to call back 
the first time the phone 
rang i was beneath a 
bridge when you rang 
again the roar of cars and 
cargo overhead made it too 
loud to hear you sense of 
sea partially

This Year

I’m assured the last renters buried nothing but their dog back here. 

I’ve begun to accrue CVS points to diversify my portfolio. 

I can promise the doctor there’s literally no

People are always saying...

Here come the ones who chose / the second option...

"Letter to Brandon" and "Poem for Julián"

After I jack off to hardcore gay porn...

curly like a / shiba inu's tail...

the water's instant when still...

I want to be remembered like this: taut...