Denise Leto

(UNLIKE) GREEN LAKE AS SKY

     By degrees or by
     knifepoint; inside
     the brain there is another
     swimless bather

the design that designs the stricken.

     A field in a face
     of shrinking gears.
     Sanguine cores through
     listed muscle, something

in lore of a trauma story.

     Run your hand
     over the newly
     shaved head,
     transmission–

underneath, an ultra meadow.

     Rows of river fluent
     as blurts from
     another mouth.
     For instance: salamander.

To reach the perimeter by

     one turn or
     a driftless
     combination
     of curves

(thieves like matter).

Denise Leto is a poet and Senior Editor at the University of California, Berkeley. A collaborative chapbook,Waveform, written with Amber DiPietra is now out from Kenning Editions. Her poetry and reviews have appeared in Puerto del Sol, Beauty is a Verb, Cinco Puntos Press; Somatic Engagement, Chain Link Book Series; Wildhorses on Fire: Other Letters; The Wolf Magazine, Arts Council of England; Aufgabe; 26; Xantippe; and MELUS: The Journal for the Society of Multi-Ethnic Literature in the US. She was guest editor for the journal Sinister Wisdom and co-founder of Three Guineas Press. Among other projects she is currently working on a docu-book, Day Jobs: What Poets, Writers, Artists, and Dancers Do for Living. She moves through the world with the neurological muscle/voice disorder, dystonia.