Our answering machine still played your message,
and on the day you died Dad asked me to replace it.

I was chosen to save us the shame of dead you
answering calls. Hello, I have just shot myself.

To leave a message for me,...

I: My beloved is called an inconceivable beast, a spectacle diagnosed with teratoid genitalia, a chaos of pronouns, a body breaking the rules. Hair & suture & unexpected timbre, outside the map. My beloved is first in the firing line. In the active shooter drill, given no refuge. We are expunged from curricula, disallowed the toilet’s relief. Fascistic tendencies festering. National evangelism of binaries taken as daily bread.

i.

Transistors live in barns amid exquisite patina.
Barns are secure for transitioning from here to
Xanadu…