Caroline J. Davidson
QUESTIONS OF CURRENT ATMOSPHERE

………………………“But we have not yet reached the fervor of dark eyes and our setting is blue.”
…………………………………………………………………………………—H.D.

Then it’s three years since—since displacement
……………………then it’s flesh on
………..foil and planks spilling out oilcloth
remnants—then we are formless,
………..but choosing berries wisely on the dirt
strand watching a man carve nipples out of
………..cypress—watching him swell—

The Venus of Willendorf passed through here
………..two years ago on a whim
before she was buttoned up
………..at the belly and said well it has
always been today we are always
………..getting older under
suspension bridges, doomed
………………….cities, and fish grow at a rate
………..that increases with time always
you say to me as we now sit
………..on the lowest cathedral step choking
down wine pushing threads through
………..our wrists in attempts to resolve
various meanings of clean,
………..as seen through fogged boundaries—

I don’t even like the meaning
………..of you gagging on warped glass—
just the sound in the mouth—
just the sound in the mouth might
………..fashion something to see out of later Says:
………..………..the Tunisian man and his impossible
want for us Says: the father’s negative silence
Says: a misread tympanum on the unnamed church
Says: the sitar snapping its strings as it is hurled
………..………….into the
………..………....Adriatic.

Caroline J. Davidson is a poet and musician from Columbus, Ohio. She received an MFA in poetry from the University of Colorado in Boulder, and her poems have appeared in places like Sixth Finch, Coconut, and DREGINALD. She currently writes, works, and makes gypsy/gothy/synthy tunes in Brooklyn, New York.

Read more from Cleaver Magazine’s Issue #23.