Two Poems

lung (for D. Avitabile) 

in the broken down knot of possible worlds, 

beneath the black tiles of sky, nothing comes 

to mind but the pulmonary ocean. in full vigor, 

conjuring up wet sand in fits of emphysema. 

my grandfather’s insignia: the charred lung.

at the shore I can see the lung in several states

of decay at once, buoyed by shelves of foam.  

from rogue bulbs of tar rattles a decade of prayers.

white soul drifting toward the sky tiled black: 

thread of love a leash to lead it, breathing, back. 

gag order

the wage-form either end-

ures forever, or it does-

n’t. that’s either a tumor in

your throat / or it’s a word. 

same difference; both meta-

stasize. our breath is always

heavy with more / 

than 

water. 

Dominick Knowles is a PhD candidate and the poetry editor of Protean magazine. Their essays on communist poetics have appeared in Viewpoint magazine and Modernism/modernity Print +. Their poetry has been featured in Prolit, Glass: A Journal of Poetry, and elsewhere. They are the co-author (with Mathilda Cullen) of Stanzas for Four Hands: An Ophanim, a collection of poems against US empire.