Vanessa Couto Johnson
concept creep
Let the caterpillar question you
who are.
That exhale—wow
isn’t gas so light
it takes years.
To be accomplished
is to be unused to this size
drink. Me: I’ve been wading, I’ve
been wa-
it
-ing in the medium; this
is a rounding section
that plains change.
That banner has my terms of service
The secret is that I’m always in
survival mode. Hello, yes, set
it on my belly. Yes, go ahead
until my spine not floored
, no longer the flour of the recipe
, petals of the mixing claws;
and the shirt sprinkled over
my deadlifting back not nutrient
dense enough. I’m doing this beltless.
Chalk headed, dipping to grip.
Coat your eats, spank off the excess,
unless you’re looking for something
job searching in the slickened gum.
Patient’s setting until you are doctored.
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, Vanessa's poems have appeared in The Shore, The Broken City, Vagabond City Lit, and Rough Cut, among others.