Youth Pastor Vibes

    you school me in the drip           living sun

                         up today so stained it high green

                        so sail      vineyards awake

                      down where flowers capillary


                    cold wet painted around halo trees wet

                      with old light                  held     faces

                  beaut from drowned stumps          I’m around


              here is where flowers wait for you             alone

        at one with up and at it           at a time     when I’m

           straight from the drip         a living sun     up today


deep lemon barking at last year’s leaves with cold wet paint

   so that I blacken with vineyards waking rust into mud


           so that I walk backwards out of the tomb

The formatting for this poem may break on small screens, so it is also available as a downloadable PDF.

Lewis LaCook

As a child, on interstate trips, Lewis LaCook (he/him) thought the moon was following his family’s Econoline van. Upon reaching adulthood, he couldn’t tell whether the truth disappointed or relieved him, so he started writing things down. His poems have appeared in journals like Otoliths,Unlikely Stories, Whiskey Tit, Lotus-eater, Synchronized Chaos, Argotist Online Poetry, and Medusa’s Kitchen, among others. His collection My Kinship with the Lotus-eaters was published in 2022 by BlazeVOX. Lewis can often be found wandering the wilds of Western New York state with his wife Lindsay.