Like witchgrass effacing a wheat bed gradually a ghoulish shadow
swallowed me from the earth up—
curtained ankles stalk thighs & belt line haunted every golden
region—unhinged behemoth
jaws & inhaled me into wailing dark where i abided numerous waning moons
For what felt like 14,000 addling revolutions
of “The Real Slim Shady” blasting at festival volume
The apoplectic & gone a fringe of seedlings—
violet heebie-jeebies shrouding my body in a trespassed field But today dear Mothership
today you are augury Your name a foretelling relief
scrolled across MARTA buses in yellow script
near Headland & Delowe Bannered beneath the marquee
at Cascade roller rink booming in Biggie’s classic “Juicy” verse O Long-Playing
Mothership forgive me my crackling radio static i have seen things
Forgive me these months of turmoil of glissandoed catastrophe The disquiet
here is unprecedented Like a craned fretboard. i have carried discord As snapped
harp strings i have streamed & ingested the yokel mistreatment of a half-Black
Duchess by a blood-struck monarchy i have gleaned “protest” & “riot”
mean different things Have seen tribalism starve decency via Twitter feed diet
Mercy me & my lapsed correspondence i came here seeking meaning [hairline cracks
in the soul’s moss skin] but vibed no such emerald enlightenment
O High Matriarch Maker of Melody Luthier me a tuning fork hear
EQ every Shih Tzu- cable news car alarm knell
Strum me in your key of care & volition Peachtree me tint the windows
w/ roses Sparkle every cogwheel fresh & so clean
mayday Mothership save me:
a million leaking eyelets
obscure my visage w/ grief
(Marcus Wicker)