Accidents That Never Happened

“Be that guy.
Don’t be Jesus, be the Shroud.
Don’t be the savior, be the stain.”

— Diane Seuss (Diane Seuss, “Rhapsody,” Stanza 9, Lines 8–10 (Lines 88–90 overall), in “[Part 7]” of Modern Poetry: Poems, published at Minneapolis, Minnesota by Graywolf Press in 2024; page 78.)

“Better

to be flowers growing around a grave than a bouquet
in a vase.”

— Neil Hilborn (Neil Hilborn, “Rasp,” Stanzas 9–10, Lines 2 and 1–2 (Lines 18–20 overall), in “[Part] I” of About Time: Poems by: Neil Hilborn, published at Minneapolis by Button Publishing Inc. in 2024; page 21.)

“Probably I’d still be an erupting volcano of shame and contrition, wondering forever

where Jesus Christ is when you need him and if my prayers are just mp3s for aliens.”

— Kashawn Taylor (Kashawn Taylor, “These Headphones Should Be Free,” Stanza 9, Lines 2–3 and Stanza 10, Lines 1–2 (Lines 27–30 overall), in subhuman. poems, published at Abiquiú, New Mexico by Wayfarer Books in 2025; page 3. Appears also in “Poems”of Poetry (April 2025), published at Chicago by Poetry Foundation in 2025; page 28.)

“All it takes is a misspelling of “satin sheets” to be shit on by the devil.

[…]I am not playing the devil’s advocate, no
I am the devil’s unpaid intern hosting a webinar[…]”

— Hannah Green (Hannah Green, “[Poem 55],” Stanza 3, Line 1 (Line 14 overall) and “[Poem 59],” Part 6, Stanza 1, Lines 1–2 (Lines 22–23 overall), in Xanax Cowboy: Poems, published at Toronto by Anansi in 2025; pages 85 and 92.)

                         i.

W     itnessing wishes vanishing, abandoning
     vanity’s fulfillment, exiling to
an oft off-grid figment
of an Amazonian imagination,
redolent with fragrant neon
tickling perception in flickering
purple increments, I have
been at once package
and recipient, man-handled, fragile,
refurbished innocence, in the
brittleness of an instance
of winsome brilliance losing
on more than just
some of its purported
improvements, an accrual, then,
this nuisance of consuming
ideas as fuel, sloshing
sluiced essences, ritualizing ingestion
to the most salient
point, refining defiant definition
until pliant pointlessness prevails,
refills chalices it translates
to grails, all art

                         ii.

uttered utter and useless,
never toothless yet not
always true or tasteful,
not unlike you, my
favourite handful of dust,
more than mortal when
you be come, clone
your Self, do away
until done, mirror into
silver gel unbottled, running
warm over chest pelts
and genitals, becoming a
portal, potent, potable, and
portable, a portion of
all that is possible,
distilled to a potion,
a volatile vial of
spilled lightning I became
gullible to swallow, still,
you ask, how my
words end up so
hollow, my tone so
miserable, but after hallowed,

                         iii.

your sacred salve a
shafted shake shaken out,
all over my face,
until your sword shrivels,
what pierce you perceived
mellows to total obliviating
echo, drips resonance below
audible consolations, concentrates its
dispersal’s flow to frozen
constellations, blown snow growing
cultures beholden to white-out
conditions, unpenned, writing of
Siberian nights written-off spent
wintering, alienating and isolating,
excruciating endurances exhilarating as
vegetable intelligence saps minerals,
petries vengeful dishes distancing
satellites garnish with televisionary
attrition, performances of syndicated
miracles, my mouth a
whole grotto my tongue
Lourdes over when I
let go and let

                         iv.

go full ghetto my
guttered lips an illusion
of sputtering love lost,
lest too long glimpsed,
algorhythmic and thick, your
track I sizzle as
I diss it allows
to fill with your
image of headlessness, Wellcomes
its Collection of textual
evidence of the existence
of Osoronnophris, bornless as
it begins again, this
has all been a
rite of pillowed intention,
privileged intonation, secret pronunciation,
bedded ambition, sleepy, hollow,
fortune’s reversal followed, full
swallow, beyond blurred tomorrows
to a moment so
slowed as though all
my sorrow were an
accident that never happened.