CONTRAPASSO


︎︎︎ Carson Jordan

︎ June 5, 2025

I gorged myself on four lilies
to absorb a lesson
coincidence should spare crazy people

The rise and fall of the stay at home girlfriend
calling be good to a chorus that says be bad back
How could anything be so soulful

I was the wolf with the drooling tongue
desperate to hunt something and drop it on your doorstep
undertaking a wish as a device

dancing at the threshold
coincidence should have spared me
dignityless like a deer at the pool

my father is just a crazy girl
a product of the year of Texas
an insane woman dressed in deadman’s clothing

coincidence is a bad host
canary in a mine, blonde in a mustang
the underside of an iceberg

it is supposed to be fun
there is neutrality in miracles
days when foundation won’t blend

I desire to be buried under a hard heavy stone
and am learning that orchids are parasites that devour their host plant
Such is life



Carson Jordan is a poet and the teacher of MIND PALACE POETRY, the workshop that makes your poetry better through the power of gossip. Her debut chapbook, GOOD FOR HER, came out with Dirt Child Press in 2022.