Four Poems

Ngoc Doan

Bodied Sleep

scent that never leaves
flesh
is flesh

errors
in the shape of life

in piercing
ices       the rain
falls

ceiling

things
replaced

we cannot mend

our shells in night

Amaranth

a dream
hung out the night
soft
off beds
perpending

sleep, you don’t come
without relations

dissolve

*

howled
autos passing
nearby highway
tract
houses rickety
bellow

wooded this area

*

stench in autumn’s
lingering

road-
kills    skunk

this unpleasant misplacement
smelts
between seasons
androgynous

as paranormal that comes
over

trees with their leaves still
can’t hold so
much snow weighs

suspended

*

in-
spacious reality

intern gray
the evening
mute the night
blank

I feed deafness

*

light the night
diffuse

echo on edge

drink
where is the shore
he fears
and the devil

*

we take what we want

on the crescent
the breast
an impatient machine

it grows quicker

*

fret and not
nothing will be lost, this
winning bread
its token for us

the sun unravels

days and more

divided
for the unmeasured

a memory
branches bare

awaiting winter’s old
approaches

The Night Had Two

moved to commune—came
mingled us

among morals
chased
olives in pool gin

rendezvous & speech of
smoke, a falling

sense
like water taste

drowned
that world

found in public
toilet
seat, a pubic hair

The World That Blew Us

effaced sun
has dyed

through fog
and frost

you know
the repose

while it lasts
feel low
for fear of it
wait

the dying
leaves evacuate
flocks of feathers
dome the gray sky
awaken

early winter’s
sharpened winds
chilling

our words
blow us

storms, when you stay up there
in nameless clouds