Kaveh Akbar
The Lilies You Brought Home Were Truly Lovely But
they disintegrated so quickly
and to be honest what I really
need is luck and lots of it good
or bad it seems to evaporate fast as
alcohol on skin and then what’s left
is mostly just atoms is my fat pink
tongue I always pray when I hear
an ambulance I wish all parties on board
a bit of grace on their worst day
for this goodness I deserve praise
I deserve shower sex when-
ever I want it and after that
for someone else to scoop the hair
from the drain I command you to
recognize my dignity to pin
a medal to my forehead we can
stand together in the winner’s
circle I’ll let you wipe away the blood
Kaveh Akbar’s poems are forthcoming in The New Yorker, Poetry, Ploughshares, Tin House, and elsewhere. His first full-length collection, Calling a Wolf a Wolf, will be published in Fall 2017 by Alice James Books.