Sarah J. Sloat lives in Germany, where she works in news. Her poems and prose have appeared in The Offing, Beloit Poetry Journal, and Hayden’s Ferry Review, among other journals and anthologies. Her chapbooks “Inksuite” and “Excuse me while I wring this long swim out of my hair” are also available from Dancing Girl Press.
Self-Portrait with Lava Lamp
Here stands a gadget laughing my laugh,
a trick that mimics my breath
and soothes my inner spastic.
This flux puts its thumb to my pulse,
the sludge that is my blood.
Here’s an idea like a cud being chewed,
an intention that flounders
with nothing to nail it to.
This gadget unpacks my lack of direction.
For all its fluorescence, ambition
caves in with a dolloping boom.
Here stands a gadget breathing my breath.
Throb of a world unstoppered
that all day betrays how
I’ve been crawling the halls, bulging
with purpose and falling apart.