Scout Faller

“i’m not sure we agree on what we came here to do”

“supplication” “from the interior”

“three” “billion” “dollar” “endowment”

“i like your” “little cigarette” “but worry”

“about its referent” “like sulfur smeared”

“the edges” “into a metonym” “and echo”

“thus rejected” “hides her face in tears”

“over dinner” “chewing up the logic”

“it’s not comparison” “being conceived-of-as”

“i wanted to ask” “the desired effect”

“as you clear” “the table of its names”

“an arrangement” “under which”

“you produce” “your best work” “poets”

“invented the fable” “and offered up its violence”

“threats confirmed” “by act” “successful”

“execution” “deferred intelligence” “Enhanced”

“Collaborative” “High-Frequency Orientation” “this world”

“rhymes with another” “enclosed by waters”

“a deceptive pool” “mahogany” “insulated glass”

“i was warned” “about exactly this” “increasing”

“from embarrassment” “my grief” “a stag”

“uncrewed and autonomous” “addressing”

“complex” “threats” “such” “weapons”

“are” “moral” “arising” “from”

“nature” “the student disappeared”

Scout Faller is a Pushcart-nominated poet and recipient of the Leijia

Hanrahan Scholarship for Communist Women Smokers. They are rarely bored.