star pocket
ornament of the nebulon
on which I rest my wrist
pocket of stars
outside the dream but still dreaming
I was being kissed by one I love but who
in real life
doesn’t love me
dream lover
a way to feel high
I looked up how to get drunk w/o drinking
it talked about soaking a tampon in booze
parmanji said
get intoxicated with god
I make my prayer and
it’s not a sacrifice
impulse to order things, to check the stats of things,
tic to click on the box, lachrymose,
bargain my saneness my senescence
for a handful of likes and lo did I this very hour
walk down a street called columbus to a real river
at shackamaxon the site of a treaty
where we said we would live in love w/ one another
as long the creeks should flow
pilgrims’ promise the promise of a lover
and like the vows of historical lovers
one that was writ on water
dream lover goes to waste
creeks undergrounded into sewers
Julian Talamantez Brolaski (https://blueflowerarts.com/artist/julian-talamantez-brolaski/) is the author of Of Mongrelitude (Wave Books), Advice for Lovers (City Lights Books), and gowanus atropolis (Ugly Duckling Presse), as well as the recipient of the 2020 Cy Twombly Award for Poetry and a 2021 Pew Foundation Fellowship. Brolaski is also the lead singer and songwriter for Juan & the Pines, whose albums include Glittering Forest and the forthcoming Saddest Songs. Julian’s poetry was recently included in When the Light of the World was Subdued, Our Songs Came Through: A Norton Anthology of Native Nations Poetry and We Want It All: An Anthology of Radical Trans Poetics (Nightboat Books). Bahara Emami photo.