[by zero]

I want to memorize the book
of disquiet & take a vow
of silence like bob kaufman,
eat my own poems

& never buy food again.
I want to pay back
my student loans with buckets
full of sand

from baker beach,
add the letters of the alphabet
only to multiply them by zero.
I want to never use the word “is”

& only use nouns for a week,
bury my favorite shirt
only to give my unborn child
directions to it in my will.
 
 
[all sounds sound like yells when my ears are underwater]

when I find quiet
I dunk my head underwater
to hear how loud my brain can get

I’m always cold & when I get hot
I slow down a little

I am an internet
I am a sun

everything is a picture
without a camera

everything is vocabulary
about the end of the world

& my very life is a creation myth
 
 
Matthew Sherling lives in San Francisco, where he likes to create things. He runs an interview blog called Cutty Spot and an online lit magazine, Gesture. Among other places, his work appears or is upcoming in The Columbia Review, The Believer, Fanzine, BIRP!, NAP, and metazen.