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.