Jacqui Alpine
GO FIG
he bye bye
he would
grandly.
a
worm slows
order—
land grounds. we
beep, contrive
whim, biz
out there. re:
should we don
the equal
inert tree cover?
How stray you sir,
who'd've hid day!
he bye bye
he would
grandly.
a
worm slows
order—
land grounds. we
beep, contrive
whim, biz
out there. re:
should we don
the equal
inert tree cover?
How stray you sir,
who'd've hid day!
IN THE VILLAGE OF MY HOME
What is remarkable is the trees
The people remarked on them
Made marks on them
Entire books on death and kings and loss
Soon love made its way in there
Everyone wanted to see how it was done
Love – it was a popular idea among the people of my village
Who’ve stood there for hours
Waiting for instructions
The people remarked on them
Made marks on them
Entire books on death and kings and loss
Soon love made its way in there
Everyone wanted to see how it was done
Love – it was a popular idea among the people of my village
Who’ve stood there for hours
Waiting for instructions
THE CIRCLER
Going around
the circle I circle
the circle to see
not what is outside.
Outside the angles
rise to measure
themselves beside
some trees.
The circle tightens
its arrow
inward, stinking.
That love could shape
a hat to wear
what others say of us
what of us.
I am not what I know
when I know
how the circle circles
itself, endlessly.
Could I sit still
or move with what’s left
uncircumvented.
Jacqui Alpine is a poet and musician from Massachusetts with an MFA from the Iowa Writers’ Workshop. She is the winner of the 2019 Prairie Lights Donald Justice Poetry Prize. Her work has appeared in Nat. Brut, Dunce Codex, Ugly Duckling Presse’s Second Factory, and Dennis Cooper’s blog.