Start with description.
Talk about the dark of the desert, the way the stars are grooves cut by ice skates.
Pretend it was November.
Decide that the wind came from a storm in the sea.
Imagine your mother was asleep, dreaming about foxes.
Tell us that a slot machine is just a night-blooming flower.
Tell us that deer are drawn to salt because they believe it will change them.
Then say people never learn their lesson and that’s why they write poems.
Now fix your gaze on a beetle.
Tell us that nothing could possibly exist beyond this beetle.
Explain that even if something did exist beyond this beetle, it would be irrelevant.
Confirm your theory by repeating it again in a different language.
Leave no room for argument.
Instructions
Austen Leah Rosenfeld
Austen Leah Rosenfeld received an MFA from Columbia University. Her poems have appeared in Salmagundi, Zyzzyva, AGNI, Indiana Review, Narrative, Carolina Quarterly, and elsewhere.