{"id":8378,"date":"2023-08-14T19:41:27","date_gmt":"2023-08-14T19:41:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/?p=8378"},"modified":"2023-08-14T19:41:27","modified_gmt":"2023-08-14T19:41:27","slug":"i-cant-stop-imagining-your-death-4-poems-by-matt-thomas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/i-cant-stop-imagining-your-death-4-poems-by-matt-thomas\/","title":{"rendered":"I Can’t Stop Imagining Your Death: 4 Poems by Matt Thomas"},"content":{"rendered":"

I\u2019ve included an original photo of a wasp, taken in our pasture, that I think represents the theme of these poems <\/em> Matt Thomas<\/p>\n

\r\n\r\nI Can't Stop Imagining Your Death<\/strong>\r\n\r\nYour ragged snores scoring the day losing seconds like\r\nbright feathers shed onto black dirt\r\neach breath snagged and restarted, stubborn as the planet's inertia\r\nand yet yours is not a friction-less existence\r\nso I worry, sure, but that\u2019s not this, this is \r\nplaying your absence, \r\ncrying on cue tears that heat\r\nthe material of the present to impressionable goo\r\nand stomping in the puddle of it. \r\nIt's harmless, no big deal.\r\nSometimes I imagine your death.\r\nI'm not prescient. It's nothing. I shouldn't have mentioned it.\r\nIt's just that in moments of transition, \r\nsuch as now, sun setting, estranging the house and your breathing, \r\nor when some unexpected light or cloud disfigures a familiar road\r\nand causes me to become momentarily, startlingly, lost,\r\nI imagine you dying.\r\nNo different than thrilling at the wind stirring dead leaves, \r\neverything going to play, to steady the staggering present.\r\n\r\n\r\nWhat \/ Nothing<\/strong>\r\n\r\nA photo\r\nof dogs long gone\r\nto look at it is to feel\r\nthe furred skin sled \r\nover fat and ribs\r\nDead dogs looking lively \r\nat the down on your cheek\r\nwhat \/ nothing\r\nyour question \/ my answer\r\naccidentally true.\r\n\r\n\r\nWhen you stretch I feel the<\/strong>\r\n\r\n\r\nshake of your daily climb \r\n\r\nup a use-shined ladder \r\n\r\nleant against my optimism\r\n\r\ntousling the jangly suckers, \r\n\r\nbuzzing my fruit, your wing noise \r\n\r\na resined horse hair sigh\r\n\r\nthat the keeper is coming.\r\n\r\n\r\nSelf-Harm at the Outlet Mall<\/strong>\r\n\r\nYou are looking for a sundress.\r\nAnd it occurs to me.\r\n\r\nA wet footprint retreating \r\n\r\nbetween a dead chickadee and my sneaker, \r\ngrass straightening to the light,\r\na calm spot in the chop \r\nof water rippling toward \r\nOld Navy, Lululemon, Ann Taylor. \r\n\r\nNot in the rain, after, \r\nin the steam of returning heat.\r\n\r\nI\u2019m glad to be here with you.\r\nBut this country is all teeth.  \r\nI'm tempted to lie down next to the bird, \r\ntell time with it, \r\nbe the guy who's fucks flew off, \r\nthat the world walks wide around.\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s obvious, despite the signage, \r\nthat we are most real in the nose. \r\n\r\nI can\u2019t be the only one \r\ncarrying sad luck like a fidget toy, \r\ndistracting my mind \r\nwith motor commands \r\nwhile the world sucks the evidence \r\nof my being back up into the sky.\r\n\r\nI don't want to give up on you, \r\nor finding your sundress,\r\n\r\nI just have to believe \r\nthat it\u2019s normal to be tempted \r\nto cut a thin cold moment in the heat, \r\nto allow my eyes to catch rain, \r\nand despair \r\nthat living won\u2019t allow it.\r\n<\/pre>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n
Matt Thomas <\/strong> is a smallholder farmer. His poetry has appeared recently in Dunes Review and Bluepepper. He lives with his partner in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. <\/p>\n
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I\u2019ve included an original photo of a wasp, taken in our pasture, that I think represents the theme of these poems Matt Thomas I Can’t Stop Imagining Your Death Your ragged snores scoring the day losing seconds like bright feathers shed onto black dirt each breath snagged and restarted, stubborn as the planet’s inertia and … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8379,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1003,43],"tags":[18,136,3],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8378"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8378"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8378\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8382,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8378\/revisions\/8382"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8379"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8378"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8378"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artvilla.com\/plt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8378"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}