Poetry By Lemmy Ya'akova

       Rachel Kramer CC



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whatever makes the light light

the truth never gets old so we take our picture
in a photo booth glass on the ground twinkles
pavement stars this too is a mother—the stain
the abstaining leaves behind the light of the light,
whatever makes the light light the loss of the lost
or the lost of the loss, both a rose, which is a rose
is a rose is a rose is a thorn because roses cannot
scream when cut from the bush especially once
they are adults in public spaces if this was a false
fall I hope I am both the gun and the mourner
a batch to be shared if humiliation floats what
sinks? if we think of the earth’s terra as its skin,
are we not a world? if it be seem that way let
be instead! do not ask me about the far away

​



but you can still live

it’ll be like this: the doctor
will tell you that you’re in perfect health

even though you feel pin pricks lasso
the clappers in your body,

ring their bells loud & hot. 
you will write love letters to fill

the hole but it will bust it open wider,
fist through a drum. when you think

you have made good sport of pain,
the pain will make good sport

of you. the nights alone will be long. 
the yogurt & spinach will

go bad in the fridge before you 
can eat it. sometimes you’ll miscalculate

where the pit sleeps in the plum. 
when the steeple ushers the flock

in for 5 o’clock mass with its chiming
you will find yourself missing

a forgotten word on the tip 
of your tongue. this is how it must be.

the body will hold it, even badly. 
you’ll be glad you wrote at all. 

humour will marry the madness
in the mess, the moon as perfect witness.

you’ll be well fed, when
they don’t love you back

the missing half second will say,
but you can still live.

​

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Lemmy Ya'akova is an advocate for y2k low culture, a film photographer, a popcorn enthusiast and a cat parent to their overgrown son, Moose. Their work is forthcoming in SAND Journal. You can keep up with their jokes on twitter @lem_jamin, their life on Instagram @ashkenazi_yew, and read their work here: https://linktr.ee/lem_jamin.