From ​Nothing Granted


the moth flutters lower & I approach / bee-like / please
excuse my mouth / how can I say what it is / to see the table
as it denies me / even the smallest affection / I call it Lucy
after the woman / who spooned out way too much /
I send her what I’ve been through / as a way of refusing /
wake up longing to rest / the way these spoons fit
into each other / we do everything / gentle / but still
do not own ourselves / we fear we might be / fashioned from angels
see what I’m saying / sweet burn-all-over / we do not distinguish / good thirst
from the cat at our feet / sex on the floor from the moth /
at the window / round like the season / sweet burn / I have
always wanted this / to drink a load / leave you split
in the end / yet I intend to be / gentle / I said
no / the half-smoke of my new girl / abuzz inside me / all wings
glee restless lust / I swear to god / I got undressed
peeling off what I sweat through / it wasn’t you I refused

Anna Meister is an MFA candidate in Poetry at NYU, where she serves as a
Goldwater Writing Fellow. A Pushcart Prize nominee, her poems are
forthcoming in Souvenir, Powder Keg, Barrow Street, and elsewhere. A 2015
Saltonstall Foundation for the Arts Fellow, Anna lives & works in Brooklyn.