NOW THIS IS WHAT HAS HAPPENED WHEN A PEOPLE CHOOSE NOTHING OVER THEMSELVES TO LOVE

David Greenspan

If you yourself are hell     tell me something

about your thighs     tell me about blackberries

fermenting on the porch     my hands push through

salmon, chicken's liver     what do you mean

knock, knock     you know I've never been able to

make heads or tails of your jokes     I've never

met a plant I didn't want to drown     if you need proof   

consider the bird     sewing needle poked in my knee   

it's purple     has been known to smell like vinegar   

if you yourself are tired     why not sleep   

why stay up folding plastic bags     now the power is out

everything is spoiling     even the squash

we found in a neighbor's yard     as it rained & rained   

we sat watching     the storm tire itself out   

all the trees     looked like children

all the children     looked like trees

David Greenspan is an MFA candidate at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and serves as a Promotion Editor for Slope Editions. His poems have appeared, or will soon, in places like Blood Tree Literature, DIAGRAM, Protean Magazine, The Southeast Review, The Sonora Review, and others.