Joined one to another. I’m all-in. So I notice They do not pass unnoticed. I get it. Reader, I’m aware. Negation’s the key. Worked backward prevaricate Joining a separate portion (portion me out) joined joint one to another. Make unseparate.

 

*

 

         This is what I’m working with—

this & truth.                        

 

    & for what it’s worth—

                     Reader,  

these’re the -ruly bits—

                      these’re that what

made it out—  

             remnants of what I’ll’ve been.

 

All druthers aside—

                  isn’t’s a dodge &

unbeknownst—

   O, whatsmore, O, terror.   

 

Reader, what’s owed don’t just reveal itself

so tell me what you need and I’ll say it.

 


Devon Wootten is a faculty member at Whitman College. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in Best American Experimental Writing 2018, Fence, LIT, Aufgabe, and Colorado Review, among others. A former resident of Yaddo and Anderson ranch, he holds an MFA from the University of Montana and a PhD from the University of Iowa. He lives with his wife among the wheat fields of southeast Washington. He is responsible for bestamericanyou.com and wikipoesis.com.