Joan Tate

from: Sobriety

                                The asterisk looks / like a little asshole

                                a sobering fact / which confronts me

                                the starfish of the mind contracts

                                at the river’s rumbling cataract / what a wet relief

                                what a good sign / this clinging to my life

                                by way of green leather / and denim

                                *

                                Woah says Joe

                                *

                                Sunflower sky / bucks all expectation

                                itches like the Dickens / a rose petal

                                caught in our throats

                                Ignore all signs / that do not say

                                you are here

                                *

                                It’s been five days / little white spider / and I

                                recite Kaddish by the water

                                these little yellow ripples

                                refract / the yellow trees

                                as if to say here you are

Joan Tate is a southern poet, transexual, and mystic living in Western MA, working on a thesis regarding snakes, saints, and light.