when you’re loud i don’t know where i am
are there people who don’t dream are there people
who never sleep are there people who look
like me why isn’t pluto a planet why isn’t derek
on dancing with the stars why are my teeth
see through what would happen
if the sun exploded what would happen
if there was no moon sometimes when i’m alone
i wonder sometimes when i’m alone i use
comic sans sometimes when i’m alone i lay
on the floor and imitate
a carrot are there people who never find love are there
people who are sexually attracted to numbers why
do all things come to an end why are you so
far away i said why are bees
dying why am i always falling
in dreams how do i raise my
credit score what would happen if there was a war
but nobody told me what would happen if parrots
were tiny spaceships of colored light
what would bicycles look like if my knees
bent the other way i like
to talk i like to take long walks i like
to take my time what time
is it what are these strawberries
doing on my nipples i need them
for the fruit salad
Image Credit: Bridget Tichenor, Enigma (1955)
Nils Michals is most recently the author of Gembox (The Word Works, 2019), which won the 2018 Washington Poetry Prize. Earlier collections of poetry include Come Down to Earth (Bauhan, 2015) and Lure (Pleiades, 2004). A chapbook, “Room“, is forthcoming from Sting & Honey Press. His work has appeared in [PANK], Catamaran Literary Reader, Miracle Monocle, Posit, and others. Michals lives in Santa Cruz, CA and teaches at West Valley College.
