helvetica

By Ivanna Baranova

Photo: Ivanna Baranova

after Louise Glück

how long will you hide your face from me

you make rules    only i can break

heart hardener, face 

of cryogenic 

glass

listen to the voice i practice on 72nd

crossing the street

   from orange juice

   to psychoparalysis

i love the world and nothing 

is wrong right now

microscopic wrench 

onramps to head static, cascade brain

do not play me your song

or my voice    breaking 

there my exposed heart darkens

there my compilation 

of never no wrongs

i am sleeping well, thanks for asking

i am sleeping okay

collecting the world in dew    it shallows 

even my blueprint, dramas and adorable dooms

tomorrow you will say

i love nothing and the world 

is wrong right now

all condolences, even spicer 

wept for his radio

on the subway i am tacky

my seatmate once composing 

song scores     black and green 

in the unknown app

amazing

outside a man is belting 

operatically about grace     

and as i see it

the end of restraint

boom, direct transmission

the threshold fucks 

like dandelions

darts

and i’m the funeral wailer now

triangulating divahood 

and the dollar store plague

bats in my crawl space

i click and light it up    hello dark 

halo, enjambment

a breath for every hyphen

and i candle your heart

my hair like cold cuts

curling over your 

shoulders

no windex, no face of glass, or grief 

of all destruction

delivery makes or breaks the day

i hear the books make 

their cameo 

as mail

you don’t love the world

if you loved the world 

you‘d have images 

in your poems

a blessing is whatever you see

About the author:

Ivanna Baranova is a poet, writer, photographer and interdisciplinary artist based in Los Angeles. She is the author of CONFIRMATION BIAS (Metatron Press) and helps with communications at The Poetry Project.

Image Credit: Ivanna Baranova