1. Pillow Talk | Jeni Olin

    As an insomniac compulsively flips a pillow
    to cool the cheek, I turn you over again & again
    & again in my mind when I need the cold side
    of the said affair to rail against
    “the ruinous work of nostalgia.”
    If life imitates art, then each stillborn
    has its own mucus-bright Blue Period.
    Sharks keep moving to prevent dying.
    People keep moving too, unwittingly staving off
    the comfort of stasis, the virility of expiration, blah, blah…
    But Death, the great highlighter, makes us all shine
    a bit more dearly. I’m a widowchild who needs sunblock
    against your blinding legacy. I used to get my cardio up
    by just sleeping next to you. In a sane world,
    I’d be bumped off to warn the others of a sky
    so blue at the end of the working business day
    if your veins hadn’t stolen the purest
    Pearl Paint blue first. A broken thoroughbred –
    I need a passport & vertigo pills to reach you.
    Godspeed, galloping into your Misty Blue
    OMG I miss you.