O was published by World Poetry Books in September 2024. The following excerpts are reproduced with the publisher’s permission.


PERFORMING ARTS

one black shackle
better than
ten in the bush
ten little n-

barely boys
slim, bare-legged
dawn bares
its white scalp

~

look, where go they?
eye pursuing
but the gaze lags
Behind

pressed just so
to the eye’s O
becoming
it happens fast now

~

widening
rolling them
these eyes
gleaming marbles

when your eyes
roll so
O
                     !

~

even at night
day breaks
nightly day
breaks into me

swing your loop of
light I exit right
I’m rushing
                                           O!

~

in the maw
mid-scream
such a din
edge-thin

eclipse! eclipse!
let them go
netted, caught
arrow, heart

~

pierced through
by other means
I bring them here
arrow, heart

what day is
an I in me
brace against
the yielding eye

~

little legs
little lack
nailed like that
snowy dregs

spotlight on
they need to see
my bare and sooty
little boys

~

need to pierce
deeper through
to the whitest
dusky bosom

open it
inside out
otherwise
there’s no way

~

I could
consume myself
fire off
my best shot

on the table
on the stretcher
this warm winter
undressing me

~

moon’s wide open
O
everywhere
this wide eye

~

naked wound
an I in me
hands and thighs
throb in prayer

day can be
four sides of night
frost turns charcoal
in my hair