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Sickly Thestled

thickly settled in thistles
navigating the surf
of the steps to the F train
neglecting in thistles narrow
margins of sonic traffic
in transit between hardwood
floors and granite soles

I’m sitting luxuriously
chewing apple savoring voraciously
watching your post bed’s duster
in lunar liquid watching
your harvest moon
teeth like firecrackers

I’m draining in fluorescence sitting
on murray street in a stable
or under verandas watching
nicotene articulate
your syllables into nouns
and your lips opening
to reveal a hallucination
of mermaids suede and swaddled
us in dresses

the psychology of business
day is sickly thestled in literature
of manhattan lunch breaks
but I’m gabbling about the analogous
flock of new england
geese honking the meeting
halls and snow caught
of my palm sized pond quacking
shivering as soon as I linger
in containing it

I laddle the crystallized goose broth
from my fingers gaping
at an american flag tank
top that is tickling
my brain stem to shiver
tempted to remember
whether that was the night
you were a handle with care sticker
goading on my spine to groan

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Ryan Thoresen Carson is a poet, performer, and activist based in Brooklyn. His work has appeared in Ubiquitous and was anthologized by All Stars. His most recent chapbook, Bullhorns in Bed, is available via Thistlemilk. Copies are available at thistlemilkpress.tumblr.com. He is a member of Sweet Jungle Collective.