I like a queen hate smoke and
must resurrect the hive of
my keeping furious Latin
I can’t understand w/ my shield made of
an embroidery hoop the white fabric
for the underwear w/ threaded bees
and their ways along it
whose news belies wintering
scarves of smoke drool of smoke
in columnar want in lateral want
between lavender spires
they wife up the colony
my outsized needs betray domesticity
from the store I order honey
I am not a Caesar I am not a vigil
w/ sexton dreams my fake gardens
dispersed throughout their wilting
my own perimeters of 100% cotton
generalized anxiety in specific
locations on set w/ unnecessary drama
feeling swarmed w/ itself
in my unseasonable notes app I reminded myself of
arbutus making pink clothes pg 298
a legacy I’ve always wanted
and so made for myself
in my party dress its hem hand sewn
sloppily but fine once again outlining
my rituals their assurance
Katherine Gibbel grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Her work has been published in or is forthcoming from Bat City Review, The Bennington Review, Underblong, and elsewhere. She has received fellowships from the Vermont Studio Center and the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, where she’s completing her MFA in poetry. You can follow her on Instagram @thingsranked.