Dear Mothership,

Like witchgrass effacing a wheat bed    gradually   a ghoulish shadow

                                                      swallowed me   from the earth up—

curtained ankles    stalk thighs & belt line    haunted every golden

                                                      region—unhinged behemoth

jaws & inhaled me    into wailing dark    where i abided    numerous waning moons

                                                      For what felt like 14,000    addling revolutions

of “The Real Slim Shady”    blasting at festival volume

                                                      The apoplectic & gone    a fringe of seedlings—

violet heebie-jeebies    shrouding my body in a trespassed field    But today dear Mothership

                                                      today you are augury    Your name a foretelling relief

scrolled across MARTA buses         in yellow script

                                                      near Headland & Delowe    Bannered beneath the marquee

at Cascade roller rink    booming in Biggie’s classic “Juicy” verse    O Long-Playing

Mothership    forgive me my crackling radio static    i have seen things

Forgive me these months of turmoil    of glissandoed catastrophe    The disquiet

here is unprecedented    Like a craned fretboard.    i have carried discord    As snapped

harp strings    i have streamed & ingested    the yokel mistreatment    of a half-Black

Duchess    by a blood-struck monarchy    i have gleaned    “protest” & “riot”

mean different things    Have seen tribalism starve decency    via Twitter feed diet

Mercy me    & my lapsed correspondence    i came here seeking meaning    [hairline cracks

in the soul’s moss skin]    but vibed no such emerald enlightenment

                 O High Matriarch    Maker of Melody    Luthier me a    tuning fork hear

                                                      EQ every Shih Tzu-    cable news car alarm knell

Strum me   in your key   of care & volition    Peachtree me    tint the windows

                                                      w/ roses    Sparkle every cogwheel fresh    & so clean

mayday   Mothership save me:

                                                      a million leaking eyelets

                                obscure my visage w/ grief