What Rough Beast | Poem for January 14, 2019

Chad Foret
The Last Moon

A cortege of straws, I’m all these

amanuenses shooting mountains
from my office. I have freedom

oozing from my eyes, including

patriotic socks, sugar crying
in the cone. Follow me

to fermentation, the poly-

phenic reek of chicken
shit. For the masquerade,

I swore by the bone spur,

fashionably sick in the face.
I’m often apostolic, palms

soaked in coin stink, skipping

ears on the Nahal Og, Malchus
half inside the speed. Prayer is

a potluck, but we brought the cold.

I saw the pastor feed the flies in his
sleeve. Even the fish bring flowers,

yes, even the weather is listening.

 

 

Chad Foret is a PhD candidate in poetry, a teacher, and an editor of Arete at the University of Southern Mississippi. Recent work has appeared or is forthcoming in Best New Poets 2018, MAYDAY, Spoon River Poetry Review, and other journals and anthologies.