A coiled overcast moves in: cloud-
cover the color of spoiled orchids,
my body tipping ionized & porous.
Beneath the low-slung undarkening
of wind, the backside of some strip
mall, beside commercial dumpsters,
some vagrant feeds his vein a needle.
Star-thistle spiders on the chainlinks;
cholla humps in chiaroscuro & grist
quicksilvers with the dusk in corners.
Puddles rump with mulm & scumble.
Big rigs swoosh the highway: a noise
that velvets on my teeth. A grackle
feasts amidst hot rubbish. Scratch-
off tickets gash & fester. Pink buds
of beavertail catch fussbudget orts
& rinds aflutter. Cacti drip a sticky
succus. Ashcan drymouth phantom
pain: the junkie\u2019s grout-sunk eyelids
flicker, exposing whites. He hunkers
up against a wall, a punk enveloped
within a frozen seasick fever-dream.
I pluck the brainstuff of a silver hair,
kinked & crooked. It\u2019s just bad luck
that greets me. Late summer rots into
a hypnotist decked out in rags. Look,
each swish little leaf goes maggoting.
Drop-dead mouse turds beckon me
to shoplift again. I fondle my mole.
I rub a blister. If these are blessings,
may I rest among them. When sky
looks wrecked, bliss crashes down.
I\u2019m glistered in cold ecstasy of rain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Will Cordeiro<\/strong> has published work in 32 Poems<\/em>, AGNI<\/em>, Bennington Review<\/em>, Best New Poets<\/em>, Copper Nickel<\/em>, Pleiades<\/em>, and The Threepenny Review<\/em>. Will authored Trap Street<\/em> (Able Muse, 2021) and Whispering Gallery<\/em> (DUMBO Press, forthcoming 2024) and co-authored Experimental Writing: A Writer\u2019s Guide and Anthology<\/em> (Bloomsbury, 2024). Will received an MFA and Ph.D. from Cornell University. Will co-edits Eggtooth Editions and lives in Guadalajara, Mexico. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A coiled overcast moves in: cloud-cover the color of spoiled orchids,my body tipping ionized & porous. Beneath the low-slung undarkening of wind, the backside of some stripmall, beside commercial dumpsters, some vagrant feeds his vein a needle.Star-thistle spiders on the chainlinks;cholla humps in chiaroscuro & grist quicksilvers with the dusk in corners.Puddles rump with mulm … <\/p>\n