Justin Ebrahemi is a Persian/Jewish poet based in the Bay Area. He is the author of the chapbook "Rosewater."
vertigo's theory
neem oil mists
on falling aphids
making aseptic rooms
soft and redolent
like anti-wrinkle cream
on concrete
covered persian rugs
i kiss airborne mold
everytime you leave
saffron oil
repels basmati
served by a widow
to insipid men
sipping earl gray
stained and steeped
in arsenic
gowns turned compost
dense in seedlings
i smile
everytime they leave
mother sits
skinny and fragrant
as auburn walls
crumble like tachin
or cable jumpers
splashing rear-view iris
arms splay as benches
awaiting rest
when toothpick bones ache
into highways
everytime we —
i’ve seen you here before.
where birds fall in vertigo to spool threadbare nests
and mercury pools mirror liquid iv tears
into isopropyl oceans you waded in a wheelchair.
time was never this centripetal.
now, contusions fog windows of my exit,
cavalier as hyacinth blooms to disinfect you.
feel the vascular exhale of blood pressure
when towns appear as apparitions,
stars as possible deaths.
lavashak wraps wrists like a bandage,
tissues sun-dried and sown in the morning.
