HANNAH STRAUSS

everything under my hand is intolerably round 

infinite as in 
oh no wonder 
nobody can bear to be unboxed 
turning this annihilatory 
gesture on things 
instead every thing 
that is sacramental void 
cheque like 
the belly of a vase 
whose interior 
is always emptying 
little unwitnessed deaths 
into regular air 
to mingle 
with everything not 
under my hand 
like clockwork 
or Key West 
anything is as open 
to interpretation as 
death even 
my words who are growing up 
by the way to be 
entitled sons of bitches 
even across the length 
of this page and these 
last few lines 
much as I 
keep getting better and better 
until I rot, like a – you get it – 
a joke in little adidas shorts 
still my deaths keep 
coming back for me 
in nascent forms 
all the things I like 
a lot or a little 
even trout 
seems to turn up 
under my hand 
diminished, round, 
and infinite

Hannah Azar Strauss is an artist and occasional translator living in Montréal. You can find her online at https://hannahazarstrauss.com.