I consent to release the necessary information to determine my eligibility for the Low-Income Housing Tax Credit Program. I understand that providing false information or making false statements may be grounds for the denial of my application. I also understand that such action may result in criminal penalties.

     we use gut        (to keep living)        to mean taking        (in my home)        something out
         what we are            (i fill)            taking out            (out the paper)            are guts
guts separate  (to prove i don’t)  what our bodies need   (have money) from what we cannot use
 when gutted   (sign a waver)   guts separate   (for the damage)   from the body that needs them
name this    (i may incur)    a thing    (from their official fingers)    after what it does not have

(rooting through my guts) Applicant hereby (hunting for unclaimed
pennies)       authorizes management        (to cut my children with)   
to verify above information   (dumping unlabeled organs)   and make
independent investigations in person, by mail, phone, fax, or otherwise  
(in the shredder)  to determine Applicant’s rental, credit, financial,
and character standing  (tell me it is necessary) Applicant releases
management (is fraud prevention) from any liability whatsoever       
(to catch me)  concerning the release or use of said information  (in a
deficit) and will defend and hold them all harmless (of deserving)
from any suit                        (name this body)             or reprisal

                        (this body’s human services)

                                                           guts is a way

                                                 (a thing)

                                                           of saying the courage

                                           (after what)

                                                            it takes to keep living 

                                   (it does not have)

*

Jessica Lawson (she/her/hers) is Denver-based writer, teacher, and queer single parent. She is the author of Gash Atlas, winner of the Kore Press Institute Poetry Prize, and the chapbook Rot Contracts (Trouble Department 2020). A Pushcart-nominated poet, her work has appeared in The Rumpus; Entropy; Dreginald; Yes, Poetry; The Wanderer; Cosmonauts Avenue; and elsewhere.