I am not of this world
And when I tell you that
You do not believe me
And force me to do things
I don’t want to do
What do I want to do?
I want to become a poem
Poem poem you went tunneling out of me
Ectoplasmic material
The sound of z
No one believed the monstrosity
Of my birth
No one believed the monstrosity
Of my death
Instead they treated me
As the kind of human
We all esteem
Sun, sunshine
A demon mask, the moon
Trees
Bitter trees
And butter, a proposition
A proposition
And days
A proposition
All of me
A candle
Burning as bright as a bird
A demon wife to dark night
A demon wife
I was to the dark night
Dorothea Lasky is the author of AWE (Wave Books, 2007) and Black Life (Wave Books, 2010). Her poems have appeared or are forthcoming in American Poetry Review, Boston Review, Columbia Poetry Review, The Laurel Review, The New Yorker, The Paris Review, and Satellite Telephone, among other places. Currently, she researches creativity and education at the University of Pennsylvania.