floating specious gloat, or to the apophenia addict

did that hurt / when the Lewton Bus pulled / up; now / you need a hiss at every street angle

cost sunken / and fallacy anchored // ordered gory cat genus // come / out to the coast / have a new class // but it’s the same animal / evolved and involved bias

what’s the pick / up or axe / line that would clear your cache // amulet you finish / actually no // you’re hurting / more than just yourself

the curse of pareidolia // jump scar // fall positive // road cage // why can’t neutral be your natural

gurge

the altared / fact and back / pedestaled // what is set as collectible / for them I want to hammer into crumble

/ vacuum packed heart into hardened bogus oracle / rehashing //

when one’s humanhood is to recite in circle / they’ve deadened already // ruin whatever joy strains remained // self-righteous shells ear to an ocean of fear

I oil my own essential / to not retch / at it all // I cover on low for a day

I’mmune

unity or munity / not mutiny nor munition // armed pop elation in the ears / live music

that’s no glute // over the shine // my cells consider strangers

in this cycle of moonshrine / between two temples my temperature gunned // these are not the infrareds you’re cooking for

I’m at my first buffet in a year and a half // rant / runt / rat in a biergarten // all pancakes start pallid // turn me

Vanessa Couto Johnson (she/they) is the author of the full-length Pungent dins concentric (Tolsun Books, 2018) and three poetry chapbooks. Dialogist, Foundry, Thrush, TERSE. Journal, and others have published their poems, and their creative nonfiction appears in The Account and FEED. A Brazilian born in Texas (dual citizen), VCJ has taught at Texas State University since 2014.