i am a doll dug out of a landfill by Melissa Eleftherion




Body of the cave mouth 
Dissolution of salt 


Intuitive ash collects 
I vibrate to the speleothem the duodenum


My heart holds the dirt
like some sweet music


i remember once a breathing green
i remember once breathing


i am a dull dig out of a landscape
The hemisphere a polydactyl crustacean of a fault


Veil of topography how the dirt is lucid mass
shell of sea star fall


in a ditch this sun’s
channel lines and gaps 


Here I am  that dirt 
i am limestone I am gravel


Lush grave of the verdant flesh
a lyric from the detritus
One lyric
up up little ascending


I say this to my cohort i say to the wind 
my desert of doll people i say to the abandoned tire i say


to metal
up up you can reach it

Melissa Eleftherion (she/they) is a writer, a librarian, and a visual artist. She is the author of field guide to autobiography (The Operating System, 2018), & nine chapbooks, including little ditch (above/ground press, 2018) & trauma suture (above/ground press, 2020). Born & raised in Brooklyn, Melissa created, developed, and co-curates The SFSU Poetry Center Chapbook Exchange with Elise Ficarra. She now lives in Northern California where she manages the Ukiah Library, teaches creative writing, & curates the LOBA Reading Series. Recent work is available at www.apoetlibrarian.wordpress.com.