it is beyond, my Mistrum

This ken is different

than doll. The barb
sinks in, wants to
play with others,

swims uphill for better sight

, gains weight. Stays
its range to awning, sp
-illage. ’illain’s read.

This scrying sub

-stance hard to extract.
Who else will concent
-rate their vial. Aisle self

doing the cliché rub to smooth;

patience for realities. Mean
-while, invent
-ory waits.


Vanessa Couto Johnson (she/they) is the author of the full-length poetry books pH of Au (Parlor Press, Free Verse Editions Series 2022) and Pungent dins concentric (Tolsun Books, 2018), as well as three poetry chapbooks. Most recently, VCJ's poems have appeared in The Shore, The Broken City, Rough Cut, and Landfill, among others.