Sawyer Gracen Sawyer Gracen

for evelyn.

strawberry jam is being on the farm

at the breakfast table, in this case the supper table to make room for everyone who came by this morning

but not before climbing onto the hard-backed bench to find what she hid while we were still asleep

the cats will congregate at the door stoop

and I’m guessing she saved them something too

she called me on the phone when I left

and I wanted to understand her.

Image courtesy of Mark McBrearty

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Sawyer Gracen Sawyer Gracen

untitled.

I feel so fucking needy

and that’s the part I can’t keep getting away with

physically here but unable to realize, to breathe fully enough—fuck poetry and fuck trying to be good at it

the words only appear when you are: on the fucking ground, too battered by your god to know left from right

alone beside a cabin, horrified by the possibility that you might just Be This Way Forever

and so lost in the eyes of someone you think sees you that you forget your cup is meant to be full too. Pouring one out for the beggar I used to be.

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Sawyer Gracen Sawyer Gracen

a theory.

Being bashful

about your own art

is like hiding from the sun

on the first day of spring

Image courtesy of Mark McBrearty

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Sawyer Gracen Sawyer Gracen

suntired.

I’ve become suntired all over again

freckles pulsating toward light

and god do I need to find a place

for all my winter coats

I’m loftier than I have been and more in the ground all at once

every

opposite

knee-jerk

thunder-foaming

mind cycle

is forced to pause

and observe the yellowjackets making a home in my doorway

and I act like I haven’t made my home in theirs

Image courtesy of Mark McBrearty

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