Zara Joan MILLER
THREE poems
THREE poems
15 01, 04 04
& 01 01 21
(la noria)
& 01 01 21
(la noria)
15 01
If I’m the fly on the wall you’re curling
your iguana tongue around me
to witness your life unfolding she said
is the key getting stuck and your strange grace
in forgetting I could never be as graceful as that.
you’re on the ocean floor she whispered
underneath all currents
the way its hand opened and closed in
feeding, a pink anemone stuck to the breast.
the door rings, it’s for you:
must be nest-building I say
interrupting your spaghetti
taking out twin loans
to the punch bowl, I’m the ladle
getting greedy. really scraping that seabed
for coral, cubed fruit.
forgive me she said
twirling the last mouthful around
your fork—where I want to be
curling from your
vortex so bad
04 04
Brine kind of skirts the
edge—this little dish
i’m sitting in. cancelling
all meetings to
be closer to the bowl
the one that takes it all
away. I don’t want to think
about where we’re
going
the season for picking
is up and besides
the two big
lights decide
how quick
that belt clicks
that
mad hot rhythm
you crushed
her house once
underfoot. still
your own pain
remains
unforgivable. lost
your keys again in
the grass
smashed
my window with
a brick
you’re so
naughty. that is,
having nothing
naught a
nobody
like this snail
you just made a
slug of
01 01 21
(la noria)
before
the bell rang
rang another
no one heard /
baby get me off
this island it’s sinking
the tonsil of the night still
busy coughing up the year
are you really leaving me / am i really leaving you
dragging a foot. we never dropped anchor just got caught in weeds
we have the swans at least, a neck to wrap us anaconda-tight in the snow
in the perfect paracetamol moon i’m downloading Duolingo finally learning the Spanish for Ferris
wheel. since the fare went up i’ll skip the candy floss, just buckle in beside you / watch the grass
slip away / that sad jingle begin
Zara Joan MILLER is the author of BLUE MONDAY (JOAN Publishing, forthcoming 2022). Her work has appeared in MAP Magazine, Fieldnotes Journal, Another Gaze and Flash Art. Her short films have been screened at venues including Ann Arbor Film Festival, Lausanne Underground Film & Music Festival, Sunaparanta, Goa Centre for the Arts, Cafe OTO and xviix (see here).
See zarajoanmiller.com
IMAGE—
Zara Joan MILLER, from ‘Untitled (yellow),’
16mm still, © 2022