blue
neck on a wire wrung day.
swollen wind, piping muscle, dour chest—
the sun’s morning breath caught occluded.
oppressively white clouds on the wrong
lord’s dawn. always the wrong side
of whether. I weather woman myself
to sleep. foreground a field of blue
with all my well-informed false.
become blue. balloon neck bloom.
string knot on a saltwater wicked
hydrangea. soft now with
swell. everything false good. just like
first light. a greedy choke catching
all my breath. all my un-hearted blood.
all my red gone blue
Pink
flush
out of sleep like a nail-lacquered wand
swatch my swift dripping hue
of the dream not the dream
i am colored cupped time
my every little speck of rise flee
fire on the roof of my glitter mouth
my pink house of lyre blood
i am a blood-liar in blown glass
i scream in the sea of sleep
flight or flung i fancy the new day
swilled by its chime
i am wind-whipped
i am no brighter
the morning is a fantasy i chemical choke
my mother is not my mother is not
the goddess of glitter
i am pink & no one’s daughter
bright out of the bottle
i am brave because i am drying
wonderment & soft armament
swell of the city
fountain gush & ever-slap
across stone, soothed stone
buildings flare up — inflections
of the infectious we
wild in the mouth with the buzz of bees
a singular man
a grave, motherless color
a shadow, a clink setting over the street
interrogative prick
at my origin of place & sex
yes, i look like a girl because i am (i am, i am)
&, later, water, green
& me in the alive
alighting leaf
from the starry hair of trees
sweet nursery
cloud i pour under
spine to the bark of my elder
grass & leaves lean & flicker in wind
like i do, & the wood, it is solid
so solid
biography
JASMINE REID is a twice trans poet of flowers. She is the author of the chapbook Deus Ex Nigrum, winner of the 2018 Honeysuckle Press Chapbook Contest, selected by Danez Smith. An MFA candidate at Cornell University and recipient of fellowships from Poets House and Jack Jones Literary Arts, her work has been published or is forthcoming in Muzzle Magazine, Apogee, the Shade Journal, and Paper Darts, among others. A Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net nominated poet, Jasmine was born and raised in Baltimore, MD, and is currently based in Ithaca, NY. Find her at reidjasmine.com