3 by Melissa broder
 

Image By Peter Cole Friedman

SKELETON GLITTER


The creepers are of the brain variety 
The creepers are all me 
Creep on me 
Hello god 
Why can't I be good 
Shadow of the baby 
Redemption of the soft friend 
She said she would never 
Leaving me 
I walk through the wrong door 
Pressed head and nothing is enough 
I am looking for ways to get out 
I am investigating 
And I do remember the sky 
I remember living up 
If only I was blanked 
The ground would give me a hug 
Come in and wolf me 
Enter the chambers and be them 
Shipwreck and bathe in blank 
We are talking serious baptism 
And I know where not to go 
And I know where not to go 
And I run right to that place 
And it's gleaming

POWER EMPTY

Night comes 
Never alone
Nothing stands in for nothing 
Everything is the same thing 
Still I think there is a better 
Nothing is coming to rescue me from the something 
God always here 
Always ready for the heart rescue 
I believe in god 
But I don't want to do god's 
What if I can't get enough 
What if I am sucking and the straw is dry 
I am sucking and sucking 
Little crinkles of honey come up 
Dried honey 
Old 
Change straws 
Drop the straw 
Go to the nipple 
Go to nothing 
Go with courage
Don't go
Just sit 
Here

YOUNG DUST

My mouth and bones are not mine 
Neither is the end of the world 

I think I broke myself on something 
I can’t remember what 

Broken born broken born 
What do I remember? 

I remember everything 
I pretend I saw nothing 

The light was good 
But real 

If I could make the real disappear 
I would 

Then what to build? 
I’d build nothing 

So why be born? 
I don't know 

Why be broken? 
The whole

MELISSA BRODER is the author of three collections of poems, most recently SCARECRONE (Publishing Genius 2014). Poems appear or are forthcoming in The Iowa Review, POETRY, Fence, The Missouri Review, Guernica, et al. She has a cult following of 13k teen girls and a few adults on Twitter, and lives in Venice, CA.