Carolyn Zaikowski: #NotTrump Series
Instructions
In the bog, find the seed
grow it slyly in your blanket
while hiding it from night
Take a message to the center
of the ordinary water
then trust the water’s need
to find its way
By the bank, find the thirst
Feel it raw down in your stomach
while hiding from the dark
Eat the center from the center
of the stationary ocean
Then burst up from sandy tides
to become free
At the center, cure the water
It arises here from nothing
in wild clouds of sound and taste
Trust the vision of what’s lost there
in the customary tear-stains
and fade away as dictated by light
Regarding Our Leader
Cover him in poems.
Melt him into nonexistence.
He thrives on engaged witnesses
Look away and never say his name.
Only indicate him
from the wings of language and form.
Write so many poems about him
that he is buried and never rises.
In this manner, release him to the swamp.
Carolyn Zaikowski is the author of the novels In a Dream, I Dance by Myself, and I Collapse (Civil Coping Mechanisms, 2016) and A Child Is Being Killed (Aqueous Books, 2013). Her fiction, poetry, and essays have been published widely, in such publications as Denver Quarterly, The Huffington Post, The Rumpus, Entropy Magazine, Everyday Feminism, PANK, and Dusie. She lives and teaches in Massachusetts. Find her at www.carolynzaikowski.com.
