From: Life Sentences

Immersed 

in    the  immensity,   rehearsed with    the       intensity,
malefaction   guaranteed  or  your  honey  sacked.    To
fudge or  not to fudge,   make a proffer we can’t defuse
or  shop,  drop,  &  roll.  There  go  the  planes,  they’re
American   plains,  like  the  bird  outside  my   window
digging at  the seed  of  the seed of the seed.  Ceci n’est
pas  une  idée fixée  
when there is  ought to  fear in fear
itself,   no   more   nor   less   than   the   frail  souls  we
squander,  scaling  our  ladders  to  nowhere, stat, while
vengeance  cups   her   expectant  buds  to   survive  not
survive their dubious fruit.

Wallowing

amidst   these   plushy   petals    like   good   &    merry
pranksters,  spanking  our own intransigence with daisy
chains    of    spleen.    The    sun    glistening    on   our
fare-thee-wells  like  wintergreen  &  waterboards, fairy
dust  &  feral lust,  labile  &  nubile  &  loathe to lend a
whelping   hand.   Turned    coats   wandering   through
mounds  of  sawdust,  precious  &  immense.  Hawking
their  wear  &  tear  unto  tears.  Quiet  &  quite undone
through   this   thicket  of   bad  deeds   by  good  actors
unpunished  for  the  best  of  their  worst.  Dying if not
daring to defect from the defects stealing the dwindling
breadth from our stray & wondering kin. 

Prisoner’s Cinema

Until  the  destiny  of  defeat  floods  the   final  fluid  &
every  nook  &  cranny  is  drowned. Tulips & agendas,
comments  &  comets   digging  in  their  heels  to  skip
being sucked down the proverbial drain. But what if we
sing  for  our  suppers   
someone   might  or  might  not

wonder, although just pretend is  more likely to prevail,
as  if  belief  were  like  cupcakes  or  Ikea  furniture,  a
reward for following instructions.  While  the rest of us
seek   our  final  bleak  emoluments   before  shuttering
down,  despite  the  negligible  effect  on  our  fearsome
view.

Susan Lewis is the author of Zoom, winner of the Washington Prize, and ten other books and chapbooks. Her poetry has appeared in many anthologies and journals, including Agni, Boston Review, The Brooklyn Rail, Conjunctions, Diode, Interim, New American Writing, Tupelo Quarterly, and VOLT. Her collaborative work has been recorded and performed at such venues as the Kennedy Center and Carnegie’s Weill Hall, and is in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. She is a co-host of KGB Monday Night Poetry and the founder and editor-in-chief of Posit. https://susanlewis.net/