Question: What is that he is beating on?
It’s a gourd drum. The drum represents the heartbeat of the deer.
Listen.
When the drum beats, it brings the deer to life.
We believe the water the drum sits in is holy. It is life.
Go ahead, touch it.
Bless yourself with it.
It is holy. You are safe now.

Deer Dance Exhibition (excerpt) by Ofelia Zepeda

I have been given
what I never asked
to see: the airborne
pigeon vivisected

by the scissor
of an airplane’s
wing, the bird’s
eye open, wholly

Lines From The Ninety-First Floor (excerpt) — Malachi Black

Blest pair of Sirens, pledges of Heav’ns joy,
Sphear-born harmonious Sisters, Voice, and Vers, 
Wed your divine sounds, and mixt power employ 
Dead things with inbreath’d sense able to pierce, 
And to our high-rais’d phantasie present,
That undisturbèd Song of pure content, 
Ay sung before the saphire-colour’d throne 
To him that sits theron 

At a Solemn Music (excerpt) — John MIlton

Large foam takeout spacecraft containers overflow the garbage in the bath

You can’t call anyone from this phone can you?
The room smells like lo mein
The sheets on the bed are God

Hotel Days (excerpt) by Michael Dickman