Two Poems by Abi Pollokoff in Seattle Met

particular reminders when prayers for the body aren’t enough

when dusty purple fruits breathe in
the sunsets & smog of their cityscapes:                                        that’s the answer.

branches dangle down splintering poles
& fenceposts & abandoned pianos
                                into gestures of hurry & freeze

                                                                  who makes this body what it is
                   what makes this body what it’s made of 

into questions of dusk & breath & billow
& palm & squeeze & pulse & pluck & ooze

                                with such silhouettes, what gets left when light

enters the room?

                                the fruits’ bursted juices all over an unsuspecting wrist
all over city corners                 stretch
                                                                     hold
                                                                     hurry


dusky purple veins branch a map of smoke & defiance

throats in yellow light


flick away dust from the skin you’ve seen before
                                unbidden orbits: the body wrapped & unwrapped
the body frozen                                in its glassy musics

it’s not a question of streets or piano keys

it’s not a question to fill veins with tendrils of carved bark

& wrapped & unwrapped

when the body’s wrappings strip themselves into collage of
gummed muscle                                marrowly melting into


pinking bone                                here’s a question:
is the body swallowed in fabric to hide

or to hold it

along the fenceline
                               the headiness of plums

in shadow in
                                                     recline
                                                     lean into it

intertwine branches with every last shadow
                                                     every particle of smog

watch the body                                                     hurry—

watch the body—