my desires are all personal and take up no space whatsoever by Aidan Dolbashian

the days these days

are so full

of stickiness

and slow sting

like wasps

idly drinking

orange soda straight

from the can

if I had wings I would

lay fan

myself all day

long and thinking

I’m too tired to fly flying

is not worth the energy at all

and maybe some other

winged things

would feel likewise

flock and fall

to me

and all of us together

we might solve

a real problem

like the wheeze and churr

of america’s trains

or the autumn

lasting only one season

or the hole

the doorknob left

in the bathroom wall

find me

waiting there

for an eye to appear

or a small rat hand

that my many paranoias

may have a mascot

who I can revere

and worship

to whom I can dedicate joyous

odes my therapist says

to personify

my anxiety

and this as all ends

is the only one

that can exist

if ever I

fly I promise

it will be an accident

Aidan Dolbashian is a graduate of University College Dublin's M.A. Creative Writing program, where he served as the poetry editor for the HCE Review, the UCD M.A. program's literary journal. He obtained his B.A. in English from the University of Vermont, where he produced an honors thesis centered on the prose poem. He is the recipient of the Benjamin B. Wainwright award for poetry. His work has been previously published in Catfish Creek and the HCE Review.