Natalia Godyla
Note to Reader

Let the spaces overgrow 
the words

rewilding the countryside 
of the paper.

Let the words hang in silence
like a spoonful 

of food held to a toddler
in a still-

brightly colored kitchen.
Throw fistfuls

of my poetry 
at your favorite person. 

Let these words be held 
by dozens 

of hands like a guinea pig 
at a pet store.

Go ahead. Let someone 
lick them 

from your shoes in a bedroom 
game. Let them be 

forgotten on a walk. 
And the walk remembered.

Let them be wiped clean 
from your mind

like the crime scene of a killer 
we never catch. 

Only a dozen people mourn 
the losses.

Let them be brutal. Let them 
grow mold 

and be tossed out 
with the expired food

in the fridge. Let them be traded 
for something preferable. 

Perhaps a small bag of sugar 
or a different book.

Let them be repotted and die 
in bad soil. 

Or grow to monstrous sizes.
Let them be a conduit 

to other spirits. Even things 
I don’t believe.

Let them be a unit of measure 
and nothing more.


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Image by Joshua Michaels from Unsplash
Natalia Prusinska (she/her) is a queer poet. Her work has been featured or is forthcoming in BOOTH, Beloit Poetry Journal, Passages North, petrichor, Cream City Review, and elsewhere, and has been nominated for Best of the Net. 

Twitter: @NataliaGodyla 
Instagram: nataliagodyla
Website: www.nataliaprusinska.com
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