From “blush”

4.

the woods are the woods are the woods
seaks the dog

play dead to
to come to life

awaken the search
instinct

do ibreath  e
do youbreath  e

give candy
lick the fingers

5.

We lie close
on the leather sofa 
skin meets leather 
dead against life 
you pound my head 
in to the breasts
i want to stay
in the warm
is it summer or 
only fever
 

6.

Your sister’s boyfriend calls us 
anus-kids, mini-sluts
We know yet nothing
We whisper it in the night
We are the pride glittering
 

7.

one day 
we find

a dead 
rat under

the hay in 
the stables it

pulls
somewhere inside me

we bury it in 
in the grit

it gets
a pile where the ground

don’t want it inside it

Notes:

From blush / river / fox by Anna Nygren, forthcoming February 10, 2026, from Milkweed Editions.

Source: Poetry (January/February 2026)