#ansley clark

[mortalpractice]

Honestly if I could choose I would be the largest and most terrifying bird    not to be measured by thin line after thin line this is to protect myself from shattering into sheer tenderness and wonder    into cinnamon sleep I've never had consistent feelings about anything except sincerity    a friend says that if she hears one more reference to a woman opening    she will vomit and I agree because I would love to close more things like doors to private spaces and like my dumb face    which insists on staying open

—Ansley Clark, from "Performances," published in TYPO

[bostonpoetryslam]

We were so loud so pleased with the parties we threw for ourselves with much applause we made ourselves cry over the magnitude of our own beauty meanwhile the ocean rode us like teeth

Ansley Clark, “Bravo,” published in Jellyfish

[bibliomancyoracle]

If I could just    let myself do     the bad thing.

*

from “Cicadas” by Ansley Clark 

[bostonpoetryslam]

To replace absence with noise is one kind of failure like forcing one’s flushed cheek on another’s.

Ansley Clark, "Failed Search Party," published in ILK

[bostonpoetryslam]

you seem so fragile is what you like to hear this too is a hunger so fragile it will not listen.

Ansley Clark, "Milk I," published in Smoking Glue Gun