IRON PLAQUE

The cure of elf disease
in animals became discovered
in dark eggs, if a horse was
elfshot it used to be dead.

continuities find that
all of these beings become
inleaf against the wind
—the marks of existence

but tradition ignores a
large woman in raw material

this creature wears a red dress when she comes back from
this is what sustained red on our wicker ground, it engages something of answer
marks existence I see me in you and we can share fingers,
what we write is the same how we speak
different for oats can cover one
another remains,
this creature sings:
“meine Kinder, meine Kinder
that is a wave not
a mountain

out the window swarming
legs knot at
thorn knees on
a wooden floor” —

for a second, it seems
we are waiting for
a morning song to pass

ANCHORESS HALL

shadowed cold in
the shape of an
egg underneath eat
what is not stolen

for a year she
trained the red house
to crane back
and chatter its teeth

finding that the face
of theft is arrows
under hooves— but if
this is a school for birds
where are the windows

MODERN PLOTEM

swim tiffany lampshade eyes
with crank you feel a maggot crawl, back curled bending
to avoid the eventual forgiving mattress, it grows

livestock roses pressed to stone
woven by hand and shreds of meat
Joan’s violent
flesh of the battle
field, she claims to
have never used her sword
to kill a man.
fish may grow out of wounds
becoming brick before a bridge
pieces of advice circumcised at the cost
of a Sunday visitor

Jessica Buten lives in West Philadelphia.