poems by nicholas alti

it isn’t fair : to take credit for miracles : but I’m trying : let’s not confuse flesh

with mercy : let’s not touch each other’s hurting :

so you see me : lightning stuck in thunderheads : far, far over a lake :

a faint echo in the distance : glowing like a swarm of opals : a gasp at dusk :

to think : all this time : I thought you were supposed to remove

the pressure from the wound :

I am a fucked up mess : panther with sparrow legs : ketchup

on tilapia : toothy kissing with ticking Tourette’s : vomit with bleach in it :

the hippocampus says to the hot swamp it resides in : my God :

I’m no animal : I’m exfoliated : a depleted nursery rhyme :

how can you forgive someone for destroying you

how can you not get destroyed

I’ve nearly mastered lessening : I can feel inertia : it’s impossible

to imagine what I could have been : were I anything more than a detonator :

but I don’t : imagine much : I have lived in my body : in crossfire & iron maiden :

in unclear transmissions : continuous equinoxes :

maybe the moon : at night : crashes into my head : over & over :

& that would explain : why I am so sore & scared :

how I became the incantation you whisper

to recollect a lover : & then the swell that rises to quell the longing