in the dream i eat the sirens my eyes go bloodshot & i start
speaking in decibels only squirrels & vaginas can
hear everythang emergency sight of red lights criss-
crossing makes me have to pee some part of me always
leaking: sweat cherry kombucha mysterious fluorescent
discharge cheap champagne pain liquified & indelible
toughens my meat but just when i think i’m inedible
somebody always nibbling at my edges i am the square
root of what academia alleges my methodology is breath
seeking a structure where i can exhale reckless where fear
ain’t mudded in the sheetrock & painted milk white where
the walls ain’t out to smother me where the foundation is
cracked just enough for spirit to seep in where i can sleep
amidst a barricade of trees & quiet parades around the house
disguised as technicolor sunset disguised as deer slick with
fog disguised as fig bush draped in snow disguised as
ancestors dark & bright as—
Copyright © 2022 by t’ai freedom ford. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on August 19, 2022, by the Academy of American Poets.