7.12.23

Who do you become through

the kinked nodes of the line

between self

preservation & annihilation?

In the horror film the killer corkscrews the human’s insides

out clogs the corpse with rosary beads

so that further movement is a question

of regulation finding purchase among

the buzzing frequencies of others’ prayers

(If the sun is not I am not)

Knotted up in the thronging day a permanence

praxis gathering

charred bits (fatty burst sweating out)

My line doubles over

in a disease of roses

5.05mi | 47:17


Phil Spotswood is a poet from Alabama, and a PhD Creative Writing candidate at Illinois State University. His most recent work can be found in Berkeley Poetry Review, Always Crashing, and Dreginald. He is a poetry reader for Spoon River Poetry Review, and Senior Editorial Assistant for Obsidian.