i wanna be the needle in your vinyl groove.

let me be your static-headed, flower-killing, star-eating, foreign-bedded bedfellow.

i’ll become the sandman in your dreams, just wait for me.

the jazz music ringing quietly that you don’t quite get.

feel this harsh and haunted wind.

take your tongue and stick it in.

a feral panther put into a too small cage.

a street special made frozen and mass-produced.

living in a house that drips blood onto your hair in the night.

crying beneath a starless sky because they’ll leave alright.

like a ouija board teasing out an answer.

like a finger teasing out your shy, little nipples.

it’s not a trick of the light.

it’s too murky for that.

swimming in unkempt ponds that refuse to stir like your stagnant mind.

coming up for air and finding the sky is an evil, starless ceiling.

this is our black lagoon.

and there’s a cat’s eyes staring from outside.

Ashe Nyburg is a student and poet currently based in Toledo, Ohio. Their work has not been published elsewhere.