Stations
Vanessa Couto Johnson
This poem is in part inspired by a headline in the Washington Post from July 24, 2014 that read: “There is a lizard sex satellite floating in space and Russia no longer has it under control.”
removing to new dimension
in a few minutes
fastidiousness of scat
easily escapes
the design of shallow sleeping
is a choice
uneaten vitamins in an enclosure
cleaning inside of it
the past is a cricket upon substrate
that mealworms ameliorate
it is best the building fits
Vanessa Couto Johnson’s work has appeared or is forthcoming in Blackbird, Toad Suck Review, The Destroyer and Posit. She is listed as a Highly Commended Poet for the 2014 Gregory O’Donoghue International Poetry Prize. A Brazilian born in Texas (dual citizen), she currently teaches at Texas State University, where she earned her MFA. She occasionally blogs at meansofpoetry.com.
