Sylvia Jones
Don't Start Me the Lying

 

At a prosperity clinic the catbird in the meadow asks:

                 How many showers do you have to take to get a car?

 

Out both sides of my mouth I replied,

                 Don’t start me the lying!

 

Meadow-panned stained glass

windowsill, oology looking thing

she steps out into the frame and cruelty

 

lingers, like a wafer chasing losses syndrome

pipsqueak malaise always does what you

want the alcohol to do. And remembering is

the part

 

that helps you remember the things that you need

to know, like if I love you, I love you, it’s not

your fault, or congratulations, underwater robots

 

striking      a       colorful       garb       against

deconstructions In the background, and the

house is a computer wearing cathedral arms,

after all, what is grief?

 

A casino! Or, no it’s one

of those de facto objects people look

at to say they saw, supernatural

fomo

 

like opening up a gentrification

like being able to close a door in your

head to keep your thinking brain from

getting into

 
Found In Volume 54, No. 04
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  • Sylvia Jones
Sylvia Jones
About the Author

 

Sylvia Jones' debut collection is Television Fathers (Meekling Press, 2024). Her poetry has appeared in Smartish Pace, DIAGRAM, Poet Lore, The Hopkins Review, R&R Journal, The Santa Clara Review, Shenandoah, Revolute, and elsewhere. She lives in Baltimore, Maryland and teaches creative writing at Goucher College and George Washington University.