there are five stages of nonexistent, from decomposition one skeletal, a body left inside the middle, not nonexistent, the secret is be marked by nowhere: a small wooden sign, a little Ohio off the cemetery, a body’s spine is buried next to nowhere, this is not nothing, have you ever eaten nowhere, that’s disgusting, V’s skeleton is, some fragments, she is buried at the border, at the border her body is turning to almost, I can almost see her, inside the multiples, I wouldn’t leave her for nothing, eight years, the space you are looking for is nonexistent, she’s elsewhere, inside the fractals, I can hear her in the glassware, there are silkworms in the after, I dare you to say she’s nothing, on the count of the same one, she wrote this poem today, I fold her into my larva, it only takes one worm, I’m going to start growing my own food, now the sediment includes her, I’m sorry, that was sentimental, wasn’t it, it’s beautiful inside the multiples, oceanic, cerulean blue, either seafoam or not, the decomposition is part of the composition, none of this is accidental, no, she didn’t dissolve on purpose, she nowhered in the glass, no one leaves their others behind, eight years, she blasted into interlude, she is not nothing, I’ll meet you in melding, even wearing my mask, on the otherside, I’d give you all the extra spines in my body, that’s not scientific, no, I am not perfect, this is active grief, the way bones dissolve when you put them in acid, I want to love you but it’s raining, my window is up, I’m nowhere, in the middle of sad sediment, even nowhere, I will not let her be nothing, it’s small here, ew that’s gross, recalibrating in the otherwise, roll down your window, have you ever, have you ever tasted the corn

Elizabeth Hickson is a graduate of Brooklyn College, where she earned her MFA in Poetry. She is also a graduate of Wake Forest University, where she earned a B.A. in English Literature and received the D.A. Brown Award for Excellence in Creative Writing. Originally from Ohio, she currently lives in North Carolina