Judith Roitman


DREAD



dread like water
                         little fish little hands
                                                         in peace

                  apricots
                  existence

                                  in bed
                                            crying

                                                           who is leaving
                                                           who is shaking off like
                                                           insects wheeling

night horses
spirits

                           incompetent weeds
                           cricket 
 




BODY



glue melting

                  childhood doll 

                                        sunlight
                                        forest
                                        beasts

                  your given name
                  your body smashed 
                                            
                                                somehow extricated

          in rain
          sinking to our knees
 




ATTENUATE



attenuate
                                             past dissolve &
                                             multiply	
                                             like ships run aground the bear

               hoarding cubs you think
                                                            sex has nothing
                                                            to do with it
                                                            the flower & its petals		
                                                            closing

                                                            death		
                                                            closing

                                             planet		
                                             irrevocable
                                             trees and fishes

 



PEAT



                                             mile after mile
                                             such density
                                             such soft green

                                             who would surround me
                                             if not those who surround me

                                             peat
                                             repeat
                                             little fluttery things

                                             one shovel after another
                                             pluck the ear from the heart
                                             the eye from its severance
                                             pluck the evidence
                                             irreversible

Judith Roitman’s books are Roswell (theenk Books) and No Face: Selected and New Poems (First Intensity Press). Her chapbooks include The Boar King (Magnificent Field Press), Provisional (dancing girl press), Slackline (Hank’s Loose Gravel Press), Furnace Mountain (Omerta), Ku: a thumb book (Airfoil Press), and Two: ghazals (Horse Less Press). She has published in a number of journals including Sprung Formal The Rumpus, Human Repair Kit, Horse Less Press, Talisman, YEW, Otoliths, Writing Disorder, E.ratio, the tiny, Equalizer, DREGINALD. She lives in Lawrence KS.

 
 

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