okay but can his long arms reach the “gyre of marine debris” (fish as good as fleece)
In the mess
of this age
garbled threads
of extended skin
from past age bones,
last age bones
pickled by black tar boiled into oiled garb,
the extension of our skins —
every age an extension —
an unseeing skin
extended
then found in boundless wasteways, clogging the pass
age —
broken off bits
of the unweened micro garb —
thought to harbor
unintended ill-will
gathering still —
For this,
this
extra
extended
garb-
this
mess-
age
u & i
I mistook someone else’s shadow for my own
and wondered intensely
for under a second
why I wasn’t moving my arms
and if my hair was really shaped
so squarely
interim
think of you
1000 years gone
and that it is
as good as done
better cuz it’s well beyond
a promise or a guarantee
nothing as flimsy as law
nothing is the condition of vital things
bleeding things plants and things
water sun sky earth bug planet bird
things
shrug
say, it isn’t news
and it isn’t meant to be
but beside the cosmogonic sucking scream
steady and terrible
it’s difficult to finish my paperwork
— smintz, shmintz, Sarah Mintz is a recent graduate of the English M.A program at the University of Regina. Her creative writing thesis was concerned with Jewish identity and tradition mediated through popular culture. She released a poetry chapbook with JackPine Press in December 2020, and her debut collection of short short stories was launched by Radiant Press in May 2021.