CARLEEN TIBBETTS

inter + tidal

in the dream the I/she walked the perimeter of an island 
prison collecting rocks putting 
the sleek endurance in my pockets 
but the I/she did not wade out
a stone loses itself to water

what recedes the I/she
she: the waterbody
from zones shallow to deep 
not waving but drowning 

pooling golddrowned wave action 
regenerator of life + water 
she/I/ reefing, rivering
no, riverine, the I 
destroyed upon entering the ripple of story 


~


I dreamt…
what does I offer? 
the lonely candy of I, such heavy confection 
I wants [  ] [  ] [  ] for itself
I desires the patina 
I is hair in the wind 
I’s what gets lost at night & found each morning after the dreaming 
I fights impermanence down to the last eyetooth 
I wants to burn [  ] [  ] [  ] to the ground just to rule its ashes

Ask an Archivist

purple motives are so forthcoming! 
let me shine up my what 
& make it the flowering meta of Deco

sehnsucht
he texts me
tells me to look it up & okay
in a wider sense 
we are all “intensely missing”

“fun in the sun” says the front of my underwear
if it lopes like a wolf  
it must be a wolf
such an affinity for vicious! 
for a wartime lover!

what should remain in the unoccupied she-body?
use the “ask an archivist” feature
or just have one present at my séance
& she will probably tell you:

fray (a reinterpretation of tears): 
verb (used with object)
archaic. to frighten.
verb (used with object)
to cause strain on (something); upset; discompose;

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CARLEEN TIBBETTS is the author of the chapbooks "a starving music will come to eat the body" (Five Quarterly, 2014) and "to exosk(elle), the last sugar" (Zoo Cake Press, 2015). Recent work appears or is forthcoming in Cloud Rodeo, Powderkeg, Forklift Ohio, The Journal Petra, Twelfth House, Fruita Pulp, TYPO, Small Po[r]tions, Souvenir, The Laurel Review, and elsewhere.