An Update from Wishing Times

a sickness that comes from
coldness and of course a coldness
that comes from wanting
to be clean. a pipe as a pipe
and not as a word. food this way
as well as love, sex, bricks, chicken
-skin, everything perfect evidence
of itself. history baked in, then
carbonized out, all things
finally simple. i want to love you
easily like a fresh-sharpened
knife. enough with the touch
-less shivering, the cold air;
i burn myself on the radiator,
which feels like hands that
feel like hands. semi
-ology is only for the past
and the future. what is
immediate is immediate,
immediately, words un-spell
-ing themselves and becoming
first grunts, then noise, steam
from the nose in winter,
heat paleolithic and modern,
breathing, now, now, then now.

***

Personals Ad

What is it about
the men I love not

eating vegetables? I
will teach you how

to love & not what.
Firm-throated, me,

& clinically-cold. You need
hot-pan, warm-bulb,

voice-noise grounding,
earth-tone soiled &

amoebic whatever.
Can be alone and next-

to like display-case carrots,
growing down, down,

etc. I love to watch my
men eat & know

they shit & think
simply nothing of it.

***

Jack Petersen (they/them) is a writer, playwright, and performer from Berkeley, CA. Their work often deals with food, queerness, and the American West, and more can be found in Pangyrus, Nosh the Mag, and The Galvanist. They live, work, and cook every night in Brooklyn, NY.