Chase Berggrun
DST
Hiemal winds from below skirt and shift
I squeeze and the want becomes apparent
I stumble in my shredded shoes
Slapped squarish in the leaf by a falling face
Out of an empty liquor store struts a lamb with books for feet
An old crow keening right behind my ear
The stars exuberant and over-permissive
I dance nervously with a felled branch within the jurisdiction of automobile
A bird crashes into the window of the poem
I’m ever closer to a brink each day off by one letter and
Everything’s wrong suddenly
All the flags bear crossbones
All the phases of the moon throughout a single night
I scream but from my lips only a heavy cream
Nothing is good here I claw the concrete
Nothing good or noble except the ailanthus forever defiant
The flowers too wet to smell gone limp
Hedgerows that don’t exist
Fake grass on fire escapes
We strut as a city into the evening together frustrated by its earliness
Overwhelmed and underdressed
Chafing needlessly at neutral interaction
Ready to resist literally anyone or anything
No socks no masters
Hiemal winds from below skirt and shift
I squeeze and the want becomes apparent
I stumble in my shredded shoes
Slapped squarish in the leaf by a falling face
Out of an empty liquor store struts a lamb with books for feet
An old crow keening right behind my ear
The stars exuberant and over-permissive
I dance nervously with a felled branch within the jurisdiction of automobile
A bird crashes into the window of the poem
I’m ever closer to a brink each day off by one letter and
Everything’s wrong suddenly
All the flags bear crossbones
All the phases of the moon throughout a single night
I scream but from my lips only a heavy cream
Nothing is good here I claw the concrete
Nothing good or noble except the ailanthus forever defiant
The flowers too wet to smell gone limp
Hedgerows that don’t exist
Fake grass on fire escapes
We strut as a city into the evening together frustrated by its earliness
Overwhelmed and underdressed
Chafing needlessly at neutral interaction
Ready to resist literally anyone or anything
No socks no masters
Chase Berggrun is a trans woman poet and educator and the author of R E D (Birds LLC, 2018) and most recently the chapbook Somewhere a seagull (After Hours Editions, 2023). Her work has appeared in The Nation, American Poetry Review, Poetry Magazine, and elsewhere. She lives in New York City with her many houseplants.