FOUND IN A TEXT I SENT MY GIRLFRIEND ABOUT MY DREAMING

Levi Distaso

In Fredonia, New York



Tonight
there is a synthe lynched above us apologizing
to moon for taking its place.
                              I am caught at the corner of a loveseat,
a Seneca pressed between my lips. He leans
over my lap to light the end,
says he is staying all week-
Jamestown is about an hour south
plus snowfall has blurred the sky like locusts.
               drop D, right?, someone asks from across
the room, fiddling with a guitar like a loose tooth
               but before I can answer there is lighter
taunting my face--  a glittery cove
Groaning with hunger.
               When he’ll rise towards in the kitchen sink.
I imagine him drowning a daughter we never had,
               and tell me,
               would the sink have been already full with cutlery
or would he empty it, run the water    
then fold the laundry?
Full of piss, did youknow, yells the kid with the guitar,
Lake Erie was pronounced dead in the 70s--
               Cigarette ash dribbles at my heels
with the wind still crying on Day Street.

CATTLEYA ORCHID

Like the skin
            of an orange,
I peel myself from the pillow
            where it is as though
I've been dreaming  
            for months.

An orchard
            usually smiling at my bedside
is now a spectacle --a public hanging,
            swinging merrily,
swollen as a fat curd.

It caught my eye    
  each sad mouth
and how once quenched   
  became thirsty as
a dried apricot.

To imagine, 
            The Orchard
molting its own flesh--    
            the thought of leaving one's body
in order to become full again.

That morning
            I ask myself:
How disappointing
            is it really
Watching yourself die?

I reach for a watering can
            In which to  
deliver the carcass so heavy with grit, 
            sagging with pity.
I find it empty but
            seething like a copper oven.

Levi Distaso is a 23-year-old poet living in San Diego, California. He has received a B.A. in English from the University of New York at Fredonia. This is his first publication.