Poetry Lab

Today I asked teacher for a magnifying glass
because the poem I'm writing keeps shrinking
because I keep writing about a self
that's disappearing even as I type
on a keyboard lit up from below.
Tomorrow I'll ask teacher for a microscope
because nothing will be left of the poem,
nothing visible, so I'll put what remains
of my initial idea on a transparent slide.
I'll put my very soul under a sliver of glass
then put my heart beneath the bell jar,
then put my ashes in the trash.

Drew Pisarra, a literary grantee of Cafe Royal Cultural Foundation and the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, has written two sonnet collections, Infinity Standing Up (2019) and Periodic Boyfriends (2023) as well as two very different homages to famous cinematic icons.