an American Sonnet
as a crow to the field after rain so goes
my Land Lord to my door come a good long month;
i forget him as the worms do, wet with time-
o god what a gift to forget, come that hot blunt
beak, come the first of the month, come that cruel glossed shriek;
they arrive in flock, Murder tidy and familiar;
from each home familial yet untethered they draw
out the squirming, the ungraspable, the wealth
of the soil; trade a body for a hole in the ground
in the wall, in the sky, in this world, I’ve found
every spider vein gifted by a ten hour shift-
how they shout from my thighs at the hint of a grift;
each day in this country they scream and rot
as birds early to the field claim the first worm caught.
Shay Alexi is a poet and performance artist based out of Atlanta, GA. They are the author of Diary of a Ghost Girl (Glass Poetry Press), and their work has appeared in or is forthcoming from The Rumpus, Apogee, WUSSY, and Homology Lit, among others. They are a Pisces sun with a Pisces moon and would like to remind you to drink some water. Learn more about Shay and read more of Shay’s work at shayalexi.com.
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