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National Poetry Month: Mathias Svalina

By

Mathias Svalina

•

I Give Birth to a Shadow

for Pastor Lee I give birth to a shadow & my wife gives birth to a Bible & my wife’s wife gives birth to a handful of rusted nails, & my wife’s wife’s husband gives birth to a waterslide, & my wife’s wife’s husband’s husband gives birth to the state of Tennessee, & it goes on like this, it goes on & on & on, the whole composited world birthed by somebody’s wife, who is somebody’s husband, who is somebody’s wife’s husband‘s husband, & so on & on & on. I think we might last until the morning. I think the distant rumbling might not be the approaching armies, might be a new waterfall just birthed into being. So let’s collect our birthed things, no matter how small or useless, & store them on museum shelves. Every thing is precious to someone, even the army had a mommy & a daddy. If I were to kiss you, right now, right here, even though I am already dead & forgotten by the world of things, I hope you would, in that moment of our kiss, give birth to something someone else might one day, lovingly, destroy.

Author photograph by Dean Davis

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Mathias Svalina
Mathias Svalina is the author of eight books, most recently Thank You Terror (Big Lucks, 2024), & he runs a dream delivery service.

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