It’s a gripping seat
here made
of glue-stiffened lace.

Have these shoulders been
let down in a decade?
Do they know another
weight than expectation?

Snake muscles—
pulsing at hold
Clearly, my face wasn’t
supposed to shine here.

The first words
for bridging diplomacy
are to be shed
in the homeland.

Trouble whelming
Think fast—
smoke has begun.

Can a time-marker occupy
more than abhorrence
for those wanting only sleep?

This is no time for
anything but iron foresight.

A ground for saber-faced horses
big cats, purple and white

Breathe into the mirror,
name your timber.

Primp the ivory lioness mane.
Choices, choices:

Required

and met.

*

Annie Goold is an Illinois native and undergraduate at University of Illinois-Chicago where her poetic convictions first grew teeth. She has since found poetic growth, community, and sublimity under the instruction of Lina ramona Vitkauskas, Francesco Levato, and Eileen Myles along with numerous dazzling classmates through the Chicago School of Poetics. With crossed fingers and booming efforts, she intends to enter a graduate program for poetry in fall of 2014. In the meantime, she soaks in the expanding vocabulary of her dog, excellent companionship, and the art of city biking.