RACHEL TANAKA
Instinctual
If you feed an animal what it will eatÂ
sometimes you kill it.Â
Weekly poems, selected by the editors. Featuring new work as well as poems from our rich archives.
If you feed an animal what it will eatÂ
sometimes you kill it.Â
Two votive plaques
crept on
along the windowsill
ants stream in
seeking water
I text my friend the photos of this iced creature curling in on itself, a wick burnt beyond its usefulness
He sent me into a rapt confusion, looking and listening
I am not always hypervigilant
about killing bugs when they tangle
in my locs.
Blank cartridges, useful in races, threats, theater
and reenactments–all heat lightning, no rain.
Everyone’s talking about the dead owls
Of the arts, only two remain: the documentary and the fragment
The fragrance is sun and grit.