VERDANT REJECTION

star splatter image shard voice watch the hunger

bent cell steam graced
line, speed

putrid slowed break
rent as formal our
rust bother, flower

pieces greased our expediency a clamor, wide fox days fenced

blanked bombers, past our all, creeps past our gleaming

past withering sight speech flute
sounds bliss my ambit, bliss my

SENT OUT TO TENDER

not my notes withering
voiced pulse, light illumined
pull, leaches, lifting concrete
voice, mere serious in the swamp
pieces species seared, wait waste.
Lenin gaze glaring, green gleam
red thickening X'd what didn't move,
briefly, toned grief, split song

Geoffrey Olsen is the author of Nerves Between Song (Beautiful Days Press) and five chapbooks, most recently Livid Remainders (above/ground press). He lives in Brooklyn, NY.