Kevin McLellan

The Ladder

i shouldn’t

demand
anything

from him

&

trade
a glass of

water

for some
salt

&

craggy:

a collection
of some

long stray

hairs down
my face

&

tired of
my own

company

also means
a deficit;

the insistent

seagulls
move in

&

hear myself
ask myself

“not the same

people—
were we?”

so now

the climb
must happen

again:

Field Guide

yes i go
backwards

&

the shadow of i

doesn’t want
to go outside

&

the equipoise:

i (verb)
(article) (descriptor)

(body part(s))

or when
i see a father

hug his son:

seeing after not
seeing

in blood

&

i say “it’s just
a turn”

and it stops

raining
the kind of rain

that inspires

me to say, “good
morning”

to a stranger:

Three-of-a-Kind

into

myself
completely:

wonder

if reset is
possible

&

so i

ies
i: the

man-

slaughter
of

the core

&

as

paired i
must

keep still:

The Erratic Field

an in-
sistence:

told

to turn
up

the corners

of
my mouth

&

black-eyed
susans

aren’t

sunflowers
nor

cliché:

more
truth

in hyphens

in
emphases:

please

let them
be

&

dyads
every-

where

and un-
aware

&

one
notch

under

full-on
the max

and the

in-
verse

too i

refuse
to go:

 

The Soundtrack
as Propaganda

the word
-of-the-day

was rain

yet in
hindsight

it should

have been
threaten

&

the thumb
puppet:

when

the pushed
button

releases

the fallen-
apart

animal

connected
by strings

goes rigid

&

near the end
he made

half-man

half-pigdog
sounds

at a kitchen

window:
at extras:

Mouths

kick-in
my defenses

so i don’t

hear
the good

explanation

&

he works

hard: all
the internal

orbiting:

but what
are his

beliefs?

&

you argued
with

the sandwich:

sat down
to eat:

Kevin McLellan is the author of: in other words you/ selected by Timothy Liu for the 2022 Hilary Tham Capital Collection, Hemispheres which is in special collections including the Poetry Center at the University of Arizona, Ornitheology, [box] which is in special collections including the Blue Star Collection at Harvard University, Tributary, and Round Trip. Kevin lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts and you can find out more about him here: kevmclellan.com

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About Posit Editor

Susan Lewis (susanlewis.net) is the Editor-in-chief and founder of Posit (positjournal.com) and the author of ten books and chapbooks, including Zoom (winner of the Washington Prize), Heisenberg's Salon, This Visit, and State of the Union. Her poetry has appeared in anthologies such as Walkers in the City (Rain Taxi), They Said (Black Lawrence Press), and Resist Much, Obey Little (Dispatches/Spuyten Duyvil), as well as in journals such as Agni, Boston Review, The Brooklyn Rail, Conjunctions online, Diode, Interim, New American Writing, and VOLT.