FIRST HALF

Look, the knight is his horse is important,
there is a change in person
He thinks that this person would be judging
him correctly
just bring it toward the edge of the loop
The very complicated skin
Facing page light
heartedness, emptied or arising
perhaps, in fact, I have nothing to say
Her there peeing like a wrung sponge….

One felt a bitter but ecstatic hunger
At a certain thought
I could have, it was Zero balm
it was Love, to
reveal itself as rage : discovery
one could forgive
as a sedative property
cataclysmic livery episodically accurate
sleety beige
I look at you basically

this too is a form of emotion

THE BIRDS

I have a vital fear
Of birds. When the birds are on the beach
I am disturbed
From the beach.
When the birds are on
The beach I head
For my car. Should the birds extend
To the car
I am desperate. The birds can cut
Me off from exit, concisely, by being
Simply
In the route. The problem with birds
Is that there are a lot of birds
You cannot address all the birds
That there are

WHAT I KNOW HAS REMAINED AT SOME DISTANCE

I am not afraid of the bucket
I am not afraid of the steam
The field onto which
Thrown down into clover
I am going in the next place
By newborn means
The throwing means the clover are
Borne out through them in some way
Some easy way

I had wanted to matter to her, the pale
Green polyester fleece
Artist
Why?
Dodging them why
Just let them hit you

Kai Ihns lives and works in Chicago. She's the author of two books of poems, most recently Of. She edits The Year, a chapbook press.