CHIAROSCURO
i got a job
i held a skull
i got there
got blasted
there is
this whole premise
what we unlock
in the dark time
when the moon
flattens
to a circle
a shape
you can draw
in my heart
i never gave up
on the total
realignment
the tangled
macrame
of the ether
the big hesitation
of what sings
i can wait
i’ve spent years
held dust
to the light
i know
it’s circumstantial
but shiny things
also enter
i’ve followed
candles
tasted
the ingredients
it was all
so simple—
light and shadow
chiaroscuro
an italian word
you learn it
with charcoal
you forget it
when the world
gives you
one cupcake,
no more—
i love the classics
the massive
angelic
whisper
of the approach
i’ve heard it,
reclined
with the oysters
so as not to pretend
the market
would capitulate—
my love language
is stimulation
but arrange
pleasure
for me
any other way
i’ll be there
touching
the pillar
accepting
the whole myth—
so we
come to
this agreement—
that the jewel
fits your neck
that the goodnight
is inevitable
so just
grab stupidly
into the field
lava lamps
morphing
into shapes
that look like dicks
i don’t care
i’ve chewed through
the plastic
around the heart
threw vines
in the cocktail
gulped it down
you could
fill the whole bouquet
into one green bottle
leave it
for everyone else
to solve
when you’re dead
and still
it’s the haunted
dysmorphia
of the mirror
the rusted shadow
of prayer—
not that luck
forms
a true ring—
but that
the glimmer
which appears
in times of need
has been curated
by some
absolute
unstable
absolute—
and in this way
beckoningly,
always,
i am brought back
to the air
HAIR STORY
somewhere out there
a cloud factory
and a 99% match
the whole thing bricked
I sat in my room
for like 7 months
umm
language
smoking
nudity
and now
well
you get
the idea
this old
heart of mine
remember
August
July
September
May
when I came back down
I had notes like
follow up instance cancel
& there is a wisdom
that is woe
but there is
a woe
that is madness
the thought
that we are guided
by some blurry light
when you’re there
listen to the crackle
but that’s living on a ship
I’m a maiden of the world
it’s fun to splash
when downsizing
the main idea
is
of course
to expand the space you have
an area rug
can fool the eye
and that’s just it
I’m just
writing from life
JON RUSESKI is the author of the chapbooks Sporting Life, Neon Clouds, and most recently, Enter Sandman. He is a founder and editor of Blush.