peter jerrim

i’m just

a desexed pet wandering the galaxy
in search of algorithmic anodynes
a scrolling rot girl in summer sync
hey i want some slack to ease
my wobbly bones and other bits
to smooth the toxic nano dirt
from out my brain my medium
my life the endless invitations to
the endless weddings of my friends

a grape a drink a tree a
shadow hammock murmurs proust
who never wrote smoke’s
vibrating consequence of love
those tiny particles that somehow set things off
so lie and swing to hear a seagull or some bells
or patrick white translating from the french
imagined heartbreak
in a daybreak’s nothingness

that is, the sense of incompletion
in the liturgy i wish i’d read more of when i could
perhaps you’ve heard it all before
the graceless elevated
their averaging of intelligence
the hope that cold news
melting in its fact-check phase
could sing to you so sweetly
while birds go black in drifting skies