Bad Survivalist: “Love Poem (with Subtle Anti-Whaling Message)” by Glen Armstrong

I am writing to you with ambergris
and cream, in a style

too clumsy to be a hat or even a sunburn.
The world has its preferences

and I have mine: you are valued.
After dinner,

I wonder about silence and whales,
secrets and beauty

that festers then ferments.
I am writing to you with a synthetic

ambroxide and soy milk
in a style imitative of my last letter’s

style. While the oceans rise and the skies
turn red, I reach

for your hand and grasp the unbuttoned cuff
of your paisley sleeve.

Glen Armstrong (he/him) holds an MFA in English from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and edits a poetry journal called Cruel Garters. His latest book is Night School: Selected Early Poems.

Image: local.fo

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