Litany for Humble Birds

i. Tendons warped around the 

     minutes we were emperors of 

ii. palindromic nights. Organs

    of the hour lay vivisected for us &

iii. through grey leather houses we

     carried pigeon skulls decorated

iv. with dust I documented myself 

     let swallows roost along my tongue

v. guiding your blackthorn fingers 

     you plucked sour cherries from 

vi. the base of my neck: lily-stained. 

     Our mouths ran vile with sour spit.

vii. Demand of me my body.

     To the woods to cotton rows 

viii. where we danced in the shadows 

     of giants with eyes like oil slicks &

ix. bristling in pillbug armor 

     I spoke your red name: Tanager.

In My Dreams I Saw Serpents

Before, I imagined myself in half-states.

     Gears tumbled from the backs of my 

knees. I offered no resistance

ecstasy of the lonely Machine

trill of the dying saint.

I wrote poems in clay & heard the 

tick of my heart. An immaculate 

consumption; black bones peeled back 

to their hooks.

Listen! Lord Clockwork

     I shook to brass branches. My sword:

the eclipse of my spine. Golden-crowned.

Rain-weary.  I maimed the kitchen tile dragon, 

& took its skin.

Ivan Josic is currently a junior at the High School for the Performing and Visual Arts for Creative Writing in Houston. He has been previously published in the Austin Bat Cave Anthology. When not writing, you can find him wandering his neighborhood, where he often finds inspiration for his work.

Visual Art by: Grey Stevenson