“Overkill” and “My Dreams Did Not Come True”

Hilma af Klint, Group IX/SUW, The Swan, No. 1, 1915, Oil on canvas

Overkill

Jet-black lager like domino on swan 
Toddler thoughts on the moon’s face 
I wrote a novel during the year I knew you 
Your casino watch and birthmark 
We curved evenings out of rigid anger 
You reminded me of a dead world 
which is to say my childhood 
I knew our time was baby time but I gave 
it away anyway, spewing dollars 
from buildings. As if no one could touch me 
if I closed my eyes

My Dreams Did Not Come True 

Eating peppermints and not fitting in 
Winter light in my cherry hairstyle, 
deerlike in my injury 
The lake froze into whipped cream 
What is the ontological status 
of inexistence? 
Is it science or sauce? 
There’s not literally a horse 
in my head, the horse is in the field 
So you just thought of it? 
Your eyes were like navy slacks 
I pulled on and off 
Is it going to go on like this for a while? 
Sawing the moon into neat pieces 
of Mylanta

Kimberly Lambright is the author of two full-length poetry collections: Doom Glove (PRROBLEM Press, 2024) and Ultra-Cabin (42 Miles Press). She is a MacDowell Colony fellow, and her poetry appears in Phoebe, Columbia Poetry Review, ZYZZYVA, The Burnside Review, and elsewhere. She lives in Brooklyn.