state wax, state wane.‬ | epi-visage from The Angel Of Blank

In Creativity by Jasmine Reid

Photo Credit: Montana Ray

state wax, state wane.‬

step by step i am terrified‬
‭ bottled light inside the body‬
‭ scan blinking nerves wonder‬
‭ the hands & feet i splay i split‬
‭ at pelvic wish full fold genital‬
‭ lever pull making belief happen‬
‭ stance array my limbs luciferously‬
‭ look at me god’s very manus‬
‭ who pushes a button on looking‬
‭ i do not know male or female‬
‭ a fulcrum as genital as wrist‬
‭ per this i will disco into humiliation‬
‭ machine that i am flashing surveillance‬
‭ daily the world whir alarms merely‬
‭ as i appear


epi-visage from The Angel Of Blank‬

already devastated out of language. a martian & yet i March more mother than mutter. sad nutter she is. the‬‭ poet of flowers. engorged by gorgeousity, where with all her sound goes lunar over the stars. each word a‬‭ sister moon passing light into constellation with dark side. there is great darkness & grave darkness. to borrow‬‭ & bling cannot forever. yes, a stellar nursery of earth is likely necessary. more place than person, the divine.‬‭ she would make a garden of a single tree: e, pit, o’ me. a denizen of gong. another gone she sheds she says‬‭ she‬‭ leaves she leaves she leaves‬‭ . i am not the blank of‬‭ blue. i am not the ambient above. what capital celestial‬‭ combinate ‘g’? i un-theorize gravity. i am elsewhere in the water (‬‭drink). come brackish combusting the‬‭ enlightenment of a neuronic ‘no.’ come poet‬‭ .‬‭ come‬‭ infertile flower‬‭.‬‭ grieve in the green intravene of‬‭ us & we will leave this‬ never-now‬‭ this‬‭ nothing‬‭ more‬‭ dust‬‭ than‬‭ dust and. . . .earth,‬‭ girl, she is everything’s grave. reader, be where your bones‬ loam. to this hole-hearted sunder, in Goddess, we must‬‭ .‬

About the Author

Jasmine Reid

Jasmine Reid is a trans: Atlantic Poet for the People. She is the author of Deus Ex Nigrum (Honeysuckle Press, 2020) and Interlocutor Goddess (Autumn House Press, forthcoming). An MFA graduate of Cornell University and recipient of fellowships from Cave Canem, The Jerome Foundation, and Poets House, her work has been published or is forthcoming in the Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-Day, Kenyon Review, and Virginia Quarterly Review, among others. Jasmine was born and raised in Baltimore, Maryland, and is currently based in Brooklyn, New York, where she is an assistant professor at NYU. Find her at her website. https://www.reidjasmine.com/