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Supplication with Rabbit Skull and Bouquet ​
by Kaveh Akbar

 
take me by the elbow

can you see the bones left in my ear    

our messiahs are blowing us kisses from heaven   

they speak in the continental longhand     

the doubt between us hangs like a moon  

there is no such thing as certainty       

the spell cast in the night was just a hard wind    

your cup is still full of poison       

whose blood is this on the bedsheets    

​not that cross    

I’m thankful for your beaded carapace  

I am a grown man       

excuse the buttery light haloing my head

I lack money  

can you help me with any of this  

you have swallowed so much already    

the fire under my bed is quiet as a fossil      

I trust completely whatever’s in your body  

​visit me at home where ghosts will watch us from the closet  


 take me by force

 can you see the boy’s name cut in my bark

 our messiahs are hopeless and modern 

 they speak only in our sleep  

 the doubt between us stickies up our tongues  

​there is no such thing as sorcery

 the spell cast on your cup was just a heap of words

 your cup was never there at all

 whose blood is this on the cross

 not any cross you know

 I’m thankful for your yellow pills

 I am growing into my science 

excuse the rabbit skull crunching in my teeth

 I lack sexual preference  

can you help me shrink back to a dainty mouth

 you have swallowed even my bouquet of corn and straw

 the fire under my bed is simple as a bed

 I trust completely whatever’s in your pockets

 visit me at home and pin your money to my skin
​ 

Kaveh Akbar founded and edits Divedapper. His poems are forthcoming in Tin House, Poetry, FIELD, Georgia Review, and elsewhere. His debut full-length, Calling a Wolf a Wolf, is forthcoming with Alice James Books in early 2018, and a chapbook, Portrait of the Alcoholic, will be out with Sibling Rivalry Press in early 2017. Kaveh was born in Tehran, Iran, and currently lives in Florida.
read more...
Johnny Hodges and Kalamata Olives
Issue 18: Summer 2016
​
ISSN 2157-8079
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