z.No Scott
Summer 2024 | Poetry
Two Poems
2 dare 2 say “i like it”
mayB
if i lngr longr
—————————
lie legswide on that line^
the day won’t last.
a malaise t’thick
& grow black as a lung
i listen but
hummmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
2 high 4 my larynx
(evernewing) (leaning low&left)
i make DAW of myself,
repitching t’sampL
an original hym—
unable harmony…
—songless—
wishing t’amplify an anthill
simply t’distort the song
drool again
u say
fill yourself with yourself
i respond,
“but i can only sit in wait for you”,
empty as this very moment
u say
something’s gotta give
& thinking it was already givN,
i asked for it again.
too numb to notice my hand is ,again,
empty of yours
built up ,again,
to be unerected—
as the very wireframe
i’m made of (a filagree
you imagined & i pretended to know
enough — ) a disciple now
buried wit all the money u sent
for food i couldn’t stomach
i growl more
you have none.
turns out that
unruly urn broke
itself, leaked resentment
out its jowl. . .
a dogmouth, youD hoped —
knowing, all along,
i’ve been sinking here,
flapping my
gums, working
my lungs to say,
god is
the space between us.
god is
the time until knowing
you, again, said
nothing. took breaths calmy.
rutterD no liferaft to
hear my voice.
hoped the wave was
goodbye to you.
if only i had sunk
quickly to that NoPlace
we know well
instead, somewhere, drowning, atlantic,
the sea shrunk down to my chest
& your name appeared as fruit
above me.
if god is
the space between us
i will work to inhale that air
& if i choke
on what was
– briefly – breathing
i will gurgL in the shallow
breath of a burial. . .
i will take in a hollowD gravespace.
you come in
waves now. the way tides can-
not stop to spite
time. they fade, they
keep coming. i buoy
now. . .a waterloggD lung.
when i reach my
tongue to taste your
pulp, your peel to pit
i sink below the surface.
i part my lips to gargL salt.
z.No scott. is the benign ghost, behind the guidepost, disguised in guy’s clothes; a rhizome [comprised of rhinestones] crying in tritones.
A graduate of the CalArts’ Writing & Performativity MFA and winner of the 2022 Emi Kuriyama Thesis Award for his manuscript, ynglytch, z.No’s work can be found in Archway Editions, SPOIL (Hilo Press), second factory (Ugly Duckling Presse), Broken Lens Journal and, soon, The Journal for Dominican Writers.
z.No performs wherever and whenever he can, always taking it too far.