ash good

we meant for that to happen

every so often / no pale whorl blurred upper corner
no over-opened eyes in the selfie / no selfie / somehow
we breathe into clay & surprise >> soaring thing escapes
untouched / our palms nearly dissolved now / pray
tell / how the vanishing occurs? we have photo evidence
of our prior existence / wet / sandy / looking at our hands
about the images >> all that can be said is we
strangely didn’t know our own power in that moment
we disappearing creatures want ocean to recall holding us
ocean doesn’t care / nothing deserves to exist << this is grace
if the ancient prayer is disinterest might as well rest
& insist ocean’s gotta notice / how it falls / when
one of / us clumsy gods / drags ourselves out
.

an entire world depends on you consistently
dreaming yourself alive

1

soft  neck  skin  at once a promise of mercy & power

satiated  bear  deep  in  forest  belly  full  of  blueberries

so  will  not  devour  only  there  will  come  a  time  when

you  want  to be devoured but these are millisecond

universes  of  thought  &  desire  or  talking  yourself  out

of  doing  what  your  body  wants  at  least  twice  today

2

if an admission of love is filled with fear you might

consume  them  it’s  okay  to  rage  i  am  not  a  bear

or female praying mantis for that matter in some tongues

everything  is  hesitant  at  back  of  throat  elsewhere  eager

you  cannot  count  the  languages  necessary  be  weary

of  any  hint  you  are  not  the  main  character  or  worse—

3

they might insist you are intimidating especially just sitting

in  your  own  power  a  little  sweaty  early  winter late

morning on top of hips on a wednesday you can only

know  yourself  from  the  inside  out  explain the view of

venus  to  venus  &  it  can’t  help  but  feel  foreign  how

can  a  planet  know  the  bramble  of  its  own  skin?

see a pdf of these pieces in their original formatting

ash good (they/them) is a queer nonbinary poet, designer & activist in Portland, Ore. They are a cofounding editor at First Matter Press (501c3 nonprofit) & a reader for Frontier Poetry. Their new collection, us clumsy gods, is forthcoming from What Books Press in 2022. Poems are forthcoming or recently appear in Faultline, deLuge, Bird Coat Quarterly, Wild Roof, Gulf Stream Magazine, Voicemail Poems, Willawaw Journal, Cathexis Northwest Press, Not Very Quiet, The Timberline Review, Rise Up Review & others.
www.ashgood.com
IG: @justlightgrow