Susan Lewis

My Life in Sheets

1.

blank or

           betwixt & between

the leafing,

            paged –

the flesh rolled &

                        soothing,

eyes nosing over

           lipped seam

(being one & the

            sane)

lapping,

cottoned to

your hybrid

            flash—

 

2.

elastic hug well-

-nigh marsupial,

bound & gagged

(naught admonished)

missing your

own semblance

trembling like any

or anon

what with words withered

by your frayed nerve-

-slaughtered expectation

piling mercy on the lost

last candied calves

stalking

strapped &

balanced

in their come-hither

wrappers,

stranded & straddled

by your standard model,

misconstrued &

moribund,

mould’ring in

chat chat chat

clatt’ring lost teeth
& shut lids

& weak progressive
chins

(or else blindly listing

toward another old idea)

Susan Lewis is the author of "How To Be Another" (Cervena Barva Press, forthcoming, 2013), “The Following Message” (White Knuckle Press, 2013), "At Times Your Lines" (Argotist e-books, 2012), "Some Assembly Required" (Dancing Girl Press, 2011), "Commodity Fetishism," winner of the 2009 Cervena Barva Press Chapbook Award, and "Animal Husbandry" (Finishing Line Press, 2008). Her work has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, appears regularly on the Altered Scale Blog, and has been widely published in such journals as Atlanta Review, Berkeley Poetry Review, Boog City, Cimarron Review, Cross Connect, Eclipse, Fact-Simile, Fast Forward, Fourteen Hills, Fugue, The Journal, Kitchen Sink, The Madison Review, Monday Night, The New Orleans Review, On Barcelona, Other Rooms, Otoliths, Pool, Phoebe, Raritan, Right Hand Pointing, Seneca Review, Shadows of the Future, The Argotist Otherstream Anthology, So To Speak, Sycamore Review, Verse (online), and Verse Daily. Her collaborations with composer Jonathan Golove have been recorded and widely performed, and her collaborations with artist Melissa Stern have been exhibited in New York City and Seattle. She is Managing Editor of MadHat Press, MadHat Lit, and MadHat Annual, and occasional guest editor at Altered Scale and Right Hand Pointing.