After Tomaž Šalamun
Alicia Mountain grows weary without reason.
And she has tried to be so reasonable,
she has taken vitamins daily and made lists
that are placed in recycling bins
once their tasks have been completed.
She took the afternoon flight to get to you
rather than the 6 am flight so that this
weariness would not arrive a stowaway.
Alicia Mountain wants a clear head
for you. Alicia Mountain wants bright eyes
like wet stones for you, and deceit only that
the stones are slick small frogs in disguise
for you, admitting truth in that they rustle and
breathe. And you will say, Alicia Mountain
brought stones, heavy in their sockets, for me.
They are yours, I’ll say, and they are frogs.
Alicia Mountain’s first collection, High Ground Coward, won the Iowa Poetry Prize and will be published by the University of Iowa in 2018. She is also the author of the digital chapbook Thin Fire, from BOAAT Press. Mountain is a queer poet, a PhD candidate at the University of Denver, and an assistant editor of the Denver Quarterly. She earned her MFA in poetry at the University of Montana. Keep up with her at aliciamountain.com and @HiGroundCoward.