Oh My Goodness

Ethan Phibbs

per ritual we deliver the pitcher distending    all night
not bothering water
till it spills cloud traffic
forecast's no apropos birdswells
spokes in a chokehold spilt on the kitchen sill    
dishes exist still
as pagoda eaves of worshipping turtles
eventually invisible    in the swill
along with your narcotic trickle
light green heat lightning
trailing sage smoke    out past my post
long absconded to trek your aquarium mythos
the inside of a pummeled bulb    center ember ebbing
reverent to the sum of slumped shapes making up
the memory of distance    sticking to near-sighted tributaries
& intermittent temples like branched bivouacs
i make my way forward & back
by carving myself out along the embankment
of clay & grass    the elements of resolution
nearing home or so    i pivot
with miles to go to a lifetime
when i find you face up    the turbulence skimming
a birdbath    divine hollow whistling
into the instrument of forever phenomena
i’ve been waiting for ever
before your estuary and ferns
i jiggle loose my last carved rib     like a rare book
from the shelf of my body
an alms collapsing me    into your index
of breathless names

Ethan Phibbs is a poet from Illinois, currently living & writing in Panama City, FL. His work has appeared in HeartWood Literary Magazine, Unbroken Journal, Eunoia Review and Mobius: The Journal of Social Change.