Within Womb

Every loose deterioration
every flutter           past           the window
so much   paper money
.          or       gray leaves          or pepper fruit
clumping off/curling away
.          past the window           we are inside
.          the birthplace                the window
.          curls away                      and nothing fades
.          density pours into space
.                         it’s like nothing is allowed to be empty anymore.

.          (space pours into density, it’s like nothing is allowed)

**

I Forgot Poems

there was tattoo gestured in chewed off hands and biceps
still closed tight in shards of afterburn, even my fixations

are marrow gone boneless through and through
a veces los árboles son ruidosos con humo

all trees are damp with fire and
shards charred bark close on nothing so tight as fresh sap

and our house is ready to perish beyond its own structure
nuestro casa aún vuela adentro colapso

y nuestro casa,            y nuestro casa,              and our house
never emerged between blemishes.

**

Oakley Merideth is a high school teacher at Atrisco Heritage Academy High School in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He received his MFA in creative writing from the University of Colorado, Boulder and has been previously published in Gasher, The Meadow, Denver Quarterly, and New Delta Review among other journals.