Freemans

The bar was decorated
with taxidermy:
birds,

that regal blue heron
splayed above
eye level,

the buck severed at
the neck, his
antlers

dulled down into gaudy
ornaments. What
past?

There was nothing left
to be had
there.

The man with a white line
on his left hand. What
present?

A possum's white nose
behind his lover's
ear

next to his fingers
on her silky
shoulder.

Cocktail shaker ice
sounds like
gravel

crunching underfoot
like a laugh
across

the room, a table,
the years. So
natural,

yet missing light
behind the
eyes.

There is too much
death. What's
one more?

The woman in silk
got up and
left.

And as for us and
the birds, we
played

dead. It was over before
our drinks arrived
anyway.

Joe Nasta (ze/zir) is a queer multimodal artist and writer who works in Seattle and writes love poems. Ze is one half of the art and poetry collective Eat Yr Manhood, head curator of Stone Pacific Zine, and a member of the team at Voice Lux Press. Zir work has been published in The Rumpus, Occulum, Peach Mag, dream boy book club, and others. Zir first book I want you to feel ugly, too was released as a handmade limited edition in 2021. Find Joe on Instagram as @jaynasty77 and @roflcoptermcgee.