*age *ist
as infant, what / if my first-person pronoun were I / at thirty I’m XXX / [er, XXX’m thirty] / imagine the diary entries of a person with these norms
Today, XXXII hear of my ninety-year-old grandfather’s pureed six ounces
if he could remember / his age he’d say / XC sit, sip, and wheel / his pro[era]noun a frown with eyes squeezed / mother juices the phone with details
number : sage mist / wage fist / mage list / cage gist / gage : geist’s zeit and piston
Vanessa Couto Johnson (she/they) is the author of the full-length Pungent dins concentric (Tolsun Books, 2018) and three poetry chapbooks. Dialogist, Foundry, Thrush, TERSE. Journal, and others have published their poems, and their creative nonfiction appears in The Account and FEED. A Brazilian born in Texas (dual citizen), VCJ has taught at Texas State University since 2014.
You can see more of their work in 9.4 and 9.4 and 2.1