You Annex A Tiny Foreign Enclave

Scott K. Odom

Lambent, window, scrim. Bowling ball, immaculate,
Undulant, pea gravel, sextant.
I walked under the bough of the apple tree in big, black boots.
Collate imbricate nanotechnologic bilabial fricative.
I mashed my lips against yours in a fit of pique.
Here a word is used like a cobble. In your mouth

Two crowded rows of teeth glisten. Triumvirate, holly, benign,
Sarcastic. I’m holding you off, I resist, I barricade
My hidden treasures with binnacle, thrush, marmalade, cos
mopolitan.

I want to break bones and let in some light. Start off
Recalling some imagined scene, a girl in a coat with her hands
In her pockets standing in a park. Seen through the rear window
Of a car driving away. It is raining and you will not see her again.

In the vestibule was a brass box on the wall, which contained something
You have forgotten. Standing there at the top of the ladder you
Could breathe in the smell of galley and hear the sound
Of voices. See the edge of a pair of blue pants and an elbow.

This is also meant to obscure. Lily, lemonade, iconoclast, nickel,
Ticket, pencil, lavender, choco-pie. Grass, abundant, glossy,
Laid into with a scythe in the dying light of the very last day
Of ______.

The phone can’t stand it anymore. It’s pent up. It’s
Got to ring.

Inculcate, oblivious, necromancer, piebald, febrile, narcissus.
Unfold you my wings; take unto yourself what is holy,
Adhere to scripture; anoint with fragrant oils the skin
Of a dying man who won’t stop saying
Your name.

It is not meant to instruct. It curves back within itself
To make itself.