Maxwell Rabb
Of Splinters, and a Clean Carpet
and an absonant flute curves incoherent Summers,
high mass tones whistling pitohui
steel grates muddy rundown pivots to echo tunnels
a dense liquid clogging the doorways
and to lattice walk the swamp,
my legs wrapped by roots—
i am far above the floor
steel pillars oil fires over the shallow water
as a toxin disposed by digestion
withered fern
nightjar above into the gutter
wades
hammerless walls hoisted above vibrating bedrock—
and this humidity is ruining dinner—
Maxwell Rabb is the author of the chapbook Faster, the Whirl Wheel (Greying Ghost, forthcoming 2023). He lives in Chicago, leaving his heart in New Orleans and Atlanta. His poems have appeared in the Action Books Blog, Sleeping Fish, GASHER, and ctrl+v, among others. He is currently an M.F.A. candidate at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.