Selected by Dawn Lundy Martin as a finalist in Omnidawn’s 2019 1st/2nd Poetry Book Prize
Obiter
aesthetic suave state
in me were daring
a bell turned upward
vast company from which
harplike position
downriver a different difference
so simply that’s also noiseless here
Obiter
thinking against quarters
symptomatic
location of work
I had no stomach
light engrossed at its edge
seeking rest for noon
whir of a thousand nostrils and chests
what portion of mood
it’s true
how it functions does not function
when like stone allures
pennied action with idea
did the sight of your face
promissory sensation
Obiter
two voices upstairs
descending “becomes a sod”
rouse your soul is spoken
themselves not having been or either
disjoints
does not remember or sometimes remembers
“to thy high requiem”
modeled…looks mid-word
proximity is failure
exorbitant
buzzing stacked valley
with the lives of the dead
Obiter
intention
here interior
into my arms my heart swiftly
who happened
imagines exhaustion
unflag barely
between parameters
is it possible collaborates
days and futures
Ethan Plaue’s poetry has appeared in Berkeley Poetry Review, Denver Quarterly, OmniVerse, VOLT, and elsewhere. He is a doctoral candidate in English at the University of Pennsylvania.