burnt poem #17
if invisibility is
the criterion of lyric
substance, then why
did i just burn my pierogi?
so many things are
allowed to happen.
it’s bullshit, really.
i smother the pierogi
in butter to disguise
the taste of blackened
dough. in a world without
work this would be a poem
about exquisite pierogi
and everything visible
happening invisibly
all at once, to everyone.
the criterion of lyric
substance, then why
did i just burn my pierogi?
so many things are
allowed to happen.
it’s bullshit, really.
i smother the pierogi
in butter to disguise
the taste of blackened
dough. in a world without
work this would be a poem
about exquisite pierogi
and everything visible
happening invisibly
all at once, to everyone.
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.