OFFICIAL SELECTION OF RACHEL RABBIT WHITE
Jewish poem
My body touches itself at all times
Becoming aware of that inescapable being here
That kaleidoscopes the world
Down to each keyframe
Of a gesture slowly picked through
By the brain I carry
Like the blackening blue draggling
Wallet I was given for my Bat Mitzvah
And haven’t been able to get rid of
For over a decade
I lost it on the train
And it was found
By some Australian tourists
I had to get it back from their earnest hotel
Above a steakhouse that was sinister
From inside the street’s rain
I lost it again while cramping at Walgreens
And it was found
By a lady who found me
Living on her block
Thanks to my conspicuous last name
It will always be found
I tried to buy a wallet less
Oily-looking and awkward
In the way it could be held
(Typically stroked
With one finger like a reptile
I need to check on in my pocket
Every two minutes
It has a mind of its own
And represents to me never-ending
Disappointment with the state
Of affairs) and I tried to be careful
But immediately dislocated the new wallet
While drinking a cup of borscht
It’s now probably pressing up against someone’s leg
Through the spackled cotton guts of a pocket
I hope it is getting used
And is not just staring
At the bottom of another piece
Of pointless material for all eternity
In a silent pile up
In a hulking landfill
I stared at my smug old wallet
I filled its wide crumby mouth
With fresh little rectangles
I felt funny and doomed
And I have carried it obediently since then
Grace
Everything is every love
Of mirrors
Of letters
The other person
The definitive
Hearing of a song
While not looking at
A neck
I’m sure I remember
Reconciling
My taking turned inward
But then came a salve
Like me
Deemed unholy
I bore myself
Like that
If earnest
I can trap it
And wonder
When I hope you do
Em Seely-Katz has a book Yellowing (Lost Alphabet) available now. Recently, they've been writing an adversarial fashion blog called Human Repeller.
Jewish poem
My body touches itself at all times
Becoming aware of that inescapable being here
That kaleidoscopes the world
Down to each keyframe
Of a gesture slowly picked through
By the brain I carry
Like the blackening blue draggling
Wallet I was given for my Bat Mitzvah
And haven’t been able to get rid of
For over a decade
I lost it on the train
And it was found
By some Australian tourists
I had to get it back from their earnest hotel
Above a steakhouse that was sinister
From inside the street’s rain
I lost it again while cramping at Walgreens
And it was found
By a lady who found me
Living on her block
Thanks to my conspicuous last name
It will always be found
I tried to buy a wallet less
Oily-looking and awkward
In the way it could be held
(Typically stroked
With one finger like a reptile
I need to check on in my pocket
Every two minutes
It has a mind of its own
And represents to me never-ending
Disappointment with the state
Of affairs) and I tried to be careful
But immediately dislocated the new wallet
While drinking a cup of borscht
It’s now probably pressing up against someone’s leg
Through the spackled cotton guts of a pocket
I hope it is getting used
And is not just staring
At the bottom of another piece
Of pointless material for all eternity
In a silent pile up
In a hulking landfill
I stared at my smug old wallet
I filled its wide crumby mouth
With fresh little rectangles
I felt funny and doomed
And I have carried it obediently since then
Grace
Everything is every love
Of mirrors
Of letters
The other person
The definitive
Hearing of a song
While not looking at
A neck
I’m sure I remember
Reconciling
My taking turned inward
But then came a salve
Like me
Deemed unholy
I bore myself
Like that
If earnest
I can trap it
And wonder
When I hope you do
Em Seely-Katz has a book Yellowing (Lost Alphabet) available now. Recently, they've been writing an adversarial fashion blog called Human Repeller.