Curriculum
Matt Broaddus
No one has done the reading
I have. It’s in my shoe.
It’s etched into my palm.
It’s carved into the back of my irises
in my garden. Bees get drunk.
They aren’t coming to class either,
cosmic ombudsman, they have their own
reading. It is written
in the ultraviolet language of petals
the blacksmith god created accidentally
hammering out the elements
at the start of time. I ohmed.
I thought it would help
to reveal the path of god
but god is far away.
Distantly I hear spheres ping.
I have. It’s in my shoe.
It’s etched into my palm.
It’s carved into the back of my irises
in my garden. Bees get drunk.
They aren’t coming to class either,
cosmic ombudsman, they have their own
reading. It is written
in the ultraviolet language of petals
the blacksmith god created accidentally
hammering out the elements
at the start of time. I ohmed.
I thought it would help
to reveal the path of god
but god is far away.
Distantly I hear spheres ping.
Matt Broaddus is the author of Temporal Anomalies (Ricochet Editions, 2023) and Deeper the Tropics (BUNNY, 2024). His poetry has appeared in American Poetry Review, Annulet, and Poetry Northwest. He lives in Colorado.