Riley Ratcliff
Gift-abundance/ leaves for Esmé
Flint in pocket, hand-
ed into me (a notion of the heart
I perpetuate in always
so I ask in perpetuity,
Can two become one if
an object, having become identical
to you is thus no longer
subject to comparison?
in the heat room
dreaming, caught
once I held a flowering limb (staff
once an old bone breaks (flint-
gift of mind (as one is suited
to another suited to
you), as I am into being into
you being into
regardless of reality.
our distances
slotted in their rooms are now
re: the instruments of control
omnisc. Distance gives life to your worlds
with the force of tails fighting
off sleep. w/in disfluencies of time
this time. as an early winter
forms I am in favor of leaving (don’t
you can trace ————————
and comfort the need for _______________
down poetic pathways
don’t
\
Straight shots, associations; is it any weather of mine
a plane (slow-
moving cities)
the code inside
one’s eye leaks
partner who ashes
from certain types
of food (node
of distortion
(is this sleep?)
dandelions
seed among
the clovers
who you know)
how you process
the desire
to be skimmed
by glass (not
my probable
body) /who
do you know
is coming; could
they be given
names? visitors
from other
wise limerent
dimensions
discernable
in leaves :)
If I am reading
I received
treatment, so
many poems
in the post-life
I took the last
shift
in a synergetic
dream
slowed
my hibernation
what is this –
body?
in the blood
of a neighboring
world /in echoes
Riley Ratcliff (they/she) is a poet from San Antonio, Texas (Yanaguana). They currently live on unceded Narragansett land in Providence, Rhode Island, where they are an MFA student at Brown University. Recent work can be found in Denver Quarterly, b l u s h, APARTMENT poetry, Afternoon Visiter, DIAGRAM, Puerto del Sol, and elsewhere - ourcorrespondence (at) protonmail (dot) com