Blanching
let us perpetrate & sing again the summer.
our throats beer-dry & broiled on bluestone,
we sprawl like accordions on manicured lawns.
let us expose again our drool & jowl
beneath the knives of summer noon.
how we bleached even the sky before we stole it,
pressed our lips to the edges of clouds,
& fastened them, drum-tight, over the earth,
sun-slung thru sight & sound & skin.
america, with molars ground to fangs
we serenade yr lockjaw dentistry,
our gauzy mouths held open to mime
yr hymn to wage and weltering.
let us grin again to show our summer tusks,
& clenching crack our teeth to gunpowder.
by our bloodless mouths, that old oppressor
hauls us into his suburban drift.
Dominick Knowles is a queer poet and Ph.D. student in English at Brandeis University. Their areas of study include modernist literature, Marxist critique, and the poetry of the radical Left. Their essays have appeared in Viewpoint Magazine & Modernism/modernity Print Plus; their poems have appeared in several independent publications.