OUTSIDE MY BODY

this is where I say the word “self” one hundred and seventy-one self-pollinating times  
--Michael Fitzgerald-Clarke

by Martha Landman

it’s cool    very cool

it’s cool outside my body
i like it

i’m surprised

at the marshals on my skin

i like it out here
outside my body

back home my mother warns the wind
Kilimanjaro crumbles

counterfactually

the Federal Government has been warned
they whisper in Mandarin

i hold my jonathans

my childhood thoughts in PDF

strategically reminded
of the wasted time last Sunday

opportunities tumble
in the bottom drawer of my head

preposterous tears absented
to a lesser realm

surrender
to acute incongruence

Michael Farrell’s Beautiful Mother
clutters my pockets and wins the recipe contest outside my head.