Paula Cisewski
Personal Universe: Summer
Season in which I learn the whole world must be some forgiveness disco I’m done
warming up but being subjected to anybody’s gaze
disorganizes my features my wonder my wounds
when anybody stops looking at me I will put my face back
wounder around knowing
how it feels to be a glamorous splat plus a little bit
the sweetest crossing guard just wanting
to feel trusted with her orange flag oh
strip my safety vest I am just one yes in this overmuch world
Personal Universe: Winter
season in which preparing to leave feels better than leaving, though a sweet ride
stands prepped to haul me forward. Look at it gleam: my gold-leaf goal god
my road forward my neatly packed leaking. One fleeing charioteer
versus even one minor pothole will equal broken-down
motion plus popped hasp plus not
progress but stalled blur.
oh hello my mess my mess
how it tumbles out dressing
the road I will follow
back to a trippy,
retrograde home. Studying
to leave means readying to stay.
Personal Universe: Fall
season in which mary says my new haircut is witchy and fuck yeah
it’s darker earlier darker earlier every day good morning
glitter ice cream horror movie marathon conjuring inner space
the men in power holler and cry he’s the nicest person/rapist
in my annual review, the big boss wrote many corrective notes
not about a real job just general how I do on the planet
where he signed his name: the letters little animals scurrying off
I always knew I would never last in this position good morning
ready for another means of travel a truth conjured carried on
Paula Cisewski's fourth poetry collection, Quitter, won the Diode Editions Book Prize. She is also the author of The Threatened Everything (Burnside Review Books), Ghost Fargo (Nightboat Poetry Prize winner, selected by Franz Wright), Upon Arrival (Black Ocean), and several chapbooks, including the lyric prose Misplaced Sinister. She lives in Minneapolis, where she teaches, collaborates with fellow artists and activists, and serves on the editorial staff of Conduit.