Becca Klaver

Spell for the Future

swipe a time machine

instaconjure a feeling

 “look, I made my day
                       so old”

that it’s already over

 once you make it real—

 polaroid-vinyl
                        nostalgia
for-nostalgia-itself  
real—

does the wish to be “in life”
reappear? 

                  want to move to 

Detroit?           Milwaukee

Escondido

The Female Gaze

  Obsessive & sensual

         but I don’t want to say

   closer to the body

                     as if women

  scuffed hooves  

     in a pen

                   together

             or as if the brain

    weren’t a moldable

             lump   

Where she saw blue

      everywhere

              I imagine

    a lighthouse

                  scanning

         ghost ships

  where others see none

                 but as if

  the fingertips were

(tics in the dark)

  doing the looking

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Becca Klaver is the author of two books of poetry—Empire Wasted (Bloof Books) and LA Liminal (Kore Press)—and several chapbooks. Born and raised in Milwaukee, WI, she holds degrees in literature and creative writing from the University of Southern California (BA), Columbia College Chicago (MFA), and Rutgers University (PhD). A teacher, editor, scholar, podcaster, and community gatherer, she is currently the Robert P. Dana Emerging Writer Fellow at the Cornell College Center for the Literary Arts and lives in Iowa City, IA.