Spooks (the state who replaces religion doesn’t want to adopt a dog with me)
As I grow older I like looking at chaos like the Westminster shows. You fight me with your omniscience—dogs who look like dogs are bred that way. Like I’m supposed to love a rescue who looks like a wormhole opened up in the evolutionary tree. Don’t call me Noah, or some kind of dog park pervert. I use videos of glossy-haired weiners eating raw meat as ASMR to fall asleep. Duck hearts and chicken necks are all part of the deal. You love all ten hours of video showing a mangy biter, a clotheshorse chained to a fence since god knows when. Bloodhounds have the ears to make a cone for their noses so they scent by following the ground instead of smelling out. Just for the threat of it, we’re who the other wants as a pet. So it’s true you’ve saved me. But don’t forget, this mouth could swallow you whole.
Spooks (dissection)
JA teaches me (it’s my choice) to cut out the heart / of the emo tomato. (With consent.) / My high school chemistry / professor was kicked off / every jury she tried to duty / when she had no fingerprints / from burning them off / on Bunsen burner hot plate testing. She’s excited one / of the cats we had / delivered in formaldehyde was pregnant. Triplets. On the subway / PSA, three faces say stop the spread wear a mask. One says not quite / with the nose out / someone has slapped their sticker / life begins at conception and in small font / and ends with planned parenthood. / when I was little and things were unplanned, a stranger hosted me and made me / lasagna because all children, even foreign bodies, love lasagna. I hated tomatoes back / then, a picky eater. When it was time to eat, I ate / the bubbly, cheesy, crispy, adjectives / that sell well in the food world. / The pool swimming across the street / like a blue gem, a round cap of a formaldehyde / jerry can. Things were different then. She was a silk painter / and worked for planned parenthood, which helps families plan when they want children / years later my bioethics professor / find him on tv / he pops out like a pregnant belly’s button / he’s the mean principal on the simpsons / does a double take spotting / me sleeping in the front row like a good girl he shows / a tomato seed swimming in tomato jelly / and calls it anti / life and I will always throw up in my mouth / at the sight of human blood. (Any blood.) / Anyway the sticker next to it is a super hot Satan so sign me up! Evangelicals / doing their work huh. He really didn’t hold office / hours of nothing for us.
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