MOI-SOI SIGH

i searched every signal of a katabasis collapse and found in sweetly 

singed tarantella sigils rapt aphrodisiacs wrapped to barren. in 

cataleptic alabaster eiderdown were enflamed whispers and so i slept 

the weary sigh then became a bride in her apothecary sewing newly 

forged talismans of love, lassoed. collateral hypnagogic hips waddled 

wearily into felt and sent forth shivers that translated a literal river my 

self a torpor. deviated winds devised the torture of bated wings and 

derelict hung pheasant rungs to scale the hints when we locked eyes, 

crying. sinus stalagmites worship librettist of the lungs plunged by 

bayonets and rolodex a residual resident heretic from havoc capsized 

the embargo of a heathen’s slither polishing portmanteau. climb 

aboard the flooding barque my queen and take us to the malebolge 

tabernacle of your hearsay where i may collude with the corneas of a 

devious wish for a nocturne, my nostos.

Jared Daniel Fagen is the author of The Animal of Existence (Black Square Editions, 2022). His poems have recently appeared in Grotto, Luigi Ten Co, and Keith LLC. He lives and teaches in New York.