Old Bay in the Key of Predictive Text

When Old Bay went old bag,

you’d think I’d’ve taken a hint.

But no, I kept taking the hate fest,

using it as a headrest, kept looking out

 

for toxic kale superiors,

because no great fish, I mean rush,

no need to swoop down like a Turkey

culture, no need to wish me sweet dramas 

or view my applications as apocalyptic.

My books morphed to elves, my all to AI 

because either I’m living in a hologram

or my dead father’s once again on the prowl.

This is my sorry, I mean story.

This is my blanket of fog and clocks.

I’ve never eaten hagfish, but this old bag

is a hag for have. I guess I shouldn’t

turn up the bitterness. At least it has a sense

of humor—turned spinach to so ha ha,

doctor to coho, or maybe it has a predilection

for the sea? Friday to die day: Why?

Is that a prediction? My patience went panther.

Sorry, I didn’t mean to disrobe you. Sorry,

but the blood ran eeww while the morels

morphed to motels. We went motel picking,

which wasn’t quite as tasty,

especially when the proprietor said

see you in corgi, see you with two

new knees, though at least I’ll be able

to run? My sibs went sobs, and enough

am I surprised it went enigma? But when

I typed I managed, how did it go to I am

an angel? How did all that light pile up like a log jam?

 

Martha Silano’s forthcoming poetry collections include Terminal Surreal (Acre Books, 2025) and Last Train to Paradise: New and Selected Poems (Saturnalia Books, 2025). Her most recent release is This One We Call Ours, winner of the 2023 Blue Lynx Prize (Lynx House Press, 2024). She is also the author of Gravity Assist, Reckless Lovely, and The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception, all from Saturnalia Books. Her poems have appeared in Poetry, Paris Review, American Poetry Review, Kenyon Review, The Missouri Review, and in many anthologies. Awards include North American Review’s James Hearst Poetry Prize and The Cincinnati Review’s Robert and Adele Schiff Poetry Prize. 

Currently Reading:

The Human Cosmos: Civilization and the Stars by Jo Marchant

For More About the Author: www.marthasilano.net.


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