american eve / same awesome moon / cue a newsroom camera / azure mosaic onscreen / an arrow aims / an arrow wavers / an arrow reverses / comma, comma, comma an unconscious announcer murmurs nonsense / can we unsee a ravine / can we un-mass un-scrum / un-con / we winnow rumors / we survive anniversaries / we muse a narrow main course menu / we smear sinners / we reserve our venom / we mourn cinema we mourn reason / we mourn summer reverie / carrion crows commune / sirens moan macaroni microwaves / in a room seasons arrive / incense a room / exorcise a room room arcana / room scum / room osmosis / care is an unseen resource / care is an essence care is recursive / our common vows in verse / romeo, romance me / courier, answer me masseuse, iron me / runner, race me across / narcissus, excuse me / convex mirror a man cusses / a woman cusses / someone a mess / someone mum in a corner / someone unscrews a sauce / can we accuse a raw sorrow in me? / worn nerves in us? / a manic exercise? / a cosmic curse? / even now we measure / voice versus erasure / comic versus sincere ennui versus ruin / memoir versus music / someone ices a rum / some wise noons we summon cures / cocoa mousse / amass reverence / mom’s ear on a receiver / warm rice conserve sun / scion rescue in moss / ice cream amazes / wave me over / wow / roses
-- Joanne Mosuela was born in Washington, D.C. and raised in Virginia. She is a graduate of the University of Virginia’s Area Program in Poetry Writing. Her work is forthcoming in Guesthouse and the inaugural issue of HERE. She was the runner-up for the 2020 Yawp Poem of the Year award from Brooklyn Poets.