A POEM BY GABRIEL COFFMAN

the early drafts   

were located and copied — the period as fragmented 

for instance compile various blanknesses

later

no more

was I inquiry 

in fact bait pulls process

a — middle thing — 

a grand resemblance to safety

a pillow stays youthful; drifted

how it developed “description”

turned to be known “as touching

jaw after jaw”

serving to consecrate the forms in some young face

behind this page

° °

now bile thy gloss

lead us into sod 

all oracular begins in the garden 

as herb

or trumpet blank

“in the attic” constantly remaining

would the department finish

     leathering the book

I cherish my swallow

one coin could take the system and crash

     throat like as with smokepulp

skirt's dim light or ghost —

Gabriel Coffman is a PhD Candidate in the University at Buffalo and has been a reader/screener for Fiction Collective 2, Subito Press, and Timber Journal. His work can be found in: Dream Pop, Gone Lawn, Yalobusha Review, Psychopomp Magazine, The Hunger Journal, and Five:2:One.