Abracadabra
for Erich and Patricia
List of things to banish 
Can include words, people, theoretical apparatuses 
Can take the form of a grocery list, a scientific experiment, or a manifesto 
Can read like a personal ad of unwanting 
Can summon aid to help with banishing 
Can be uncertain of what will remain 
Can have no positive mission statement 
Can be written in a language other than language 
Can circulate amongst FRIENDS ONLY 
Can evade being imagined, written, embodied, archived 
Can go like this 
Can make itself irrelevant 
Can include buildings, brushstrokes, and other abominations 
Can mean my way of life is unlivable 
Can mean my life is as yet unlived 
Can mean I must become a menace to my enemies 
Can undo futurity forever in favor of *******
Can remake futurity into someone who doesn’t recognize herself 
Can punctuate the present like a cup of coffee or a Monday 
Can be dreamed up and shot down and elongated 
Can tell us something 
Can include forms and fantasies, even the ones getting us by 
Can instigate an interregnum  
Can be unfinished 
Can include hope hopefully 
Can be blank 
But don’t kid yourself 
It isn’t 
And it can’t include  
History 
Copyright © 2023 by Mia Kang. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on December 8, 2023, by the Academy of American Poets.
