Through 101 novels and metafictions, each poem in this collection riffs, literally, on its subject texts’ opening line(s).

My shopping spree is over I am content in my mess Return my luxury For essentials I desire nothing more Than a bed Too hot to touch Fire...

— for my father You recognized the earnestness when I set out alone —you had always been my compass— with a thermos and your field...

Most people walk with a layer of soot over their eyes, yet they do not shed a tear or even blink. They walk with an arrow shooting out of...

We’re in my hotel room, and it’s the third time he kissed me. In my memory I register the booze-blurred messy clumsiness, but at the time...

early spring the air is still cold enough to risk the crocuses my suitcase full of jam jars I am skittish trundling all this breakable...

isn’t it so obvious- that we were never meant to be here bearing witness on this black & blooming eyelid ? yes, yes it is either...

Seul, je marchais sous des lueurs tamisées et les nuages. Dans la cave d’un bâtiment aux murs inachevés, et dans cinq des neuf étangs,...

The morning to dress, each soldier helps the other into surgical gowns and respirators before making the descent step by step, down to...

What if I used what the therapists I follow an Instagram call “positive self-talk?”

They keep removing our bones and rebuilding them weaker, before sewing us together with dread. At least our flesh remains the same, so we...

the maternal urge to lick your scalp and bite your fingers every day, firsts and lasts My heart, spilling through the holes in my chest...

To the brown curly-haired librarian, with the “she/they” pronoun pin Who works so diligently at my university’s library  Did you notice...

I came in through the side door sparrow singing in a spruce tree blue ground frozen dog shit and chain I came in to wool needles clicking...

I stand on a beach in Bulgaria facing east My line of sight travels a hawk’s path ending up in Georgia roosting in the mountains of...

slice feels like one of those words  whose sound matches its description I see this for the first time when I slice  the soft flesh on...

Our individual uniqueness is what separates us from all others Our shared humanity is what unites us with all others Our lives are...

when we were small, the house next door set ablaze and choked the evening air—we sat on the street and watched the flames lick along...

I bought a bagel  and a banana at the  train station on my  way to work. As I  walked on the platform the banana fell out of  my pocket....

there are only so many ways you can lay positions to sprawl places for legs to go back, side side, front  the body knows them well and it...