hoodie like he was taking off a hoodie from the inside not out he took off his skin to show me his insides. they were red like apples and pink like flowers and even a little bit purple like me — i swear to God, i’ve never been more in love.
white picket fence when i die i don’t want to have been an awful person or worse yet a bad American long after the bruises on my pallid skin the cuts in my brittle bones have turned dust i’ll still be known by Sam our Uncle for having that mark — a bad credit score
explain it like i’m blind the red of a cheek flush from the warmth of a fire built in spite of the cold is the color of love
here comes the airplane when i was a child my mom hated to fly, thought devils lived in the clouds. (they were in her head) i was often by myself waiting in the sweaty seats watching people land and take off. (they were concerned gazers supreme) i would play a game where the planes in the distance and the ones in taxi would race. (they were always nail-biters)
huntress at dawn the cat of infinite death jumped from the couch to the sill that cold morn. it shook me awake. she stared down from that oaken perch at, wrapped in another’s clothes and limbs shaking, me a trifling slug. i saw her prepare to leap onto my chest, unable to move. that weight of a life full of mistakes would have with no remorse stolen the beat of my own drum i’d danced to for years. i barely heard it: the dull chirp of an angel a songbird saved me my fate, a date with death that cold morn. the cat’s head cocked right tastier prey awaited outside. if not for that bird the loss of whose life gave me mine back, i could not, would not be here to tell you all how on that cold cold morn, so awful it was to be a trifling slug. i haven't used since.
Ryan Matisons Wood is an amateur poet recovering from addiction in Appalachia. He has one poem “Only (some of my faults)” that has been selected for publication prior; it will appear in the December 2023 issue of Yearling, a Lexington, KY working poet’s journal. He has collected records for 8 years and his favorite butterfly is Jamie.
