Zachary Schomburg




from Scary, No Scary







In the woods is an old abandoned hotel.
Trees grow inside of it.
Limbs jut out of the windows
as if the trees were wearing the hotel
like a boxy pink prom dress
like a dirty white tuxedo.

1000 empty rooms
with mirrors.

In all of them
I’m this hotel.

You’re a long shiny line








What color
was your prom dress?

I am sorry
I missed your birthday party.

I’ve been hollowing.

I saw you
floating face down
in mid-air.

Remember when we would swim
in the lake,
how soft
our bodies were, how

we would disappear
in the black water,
how the lake too
would disappear?

I only touch other trees
when it is windy,
but they are
actual trees.  

You can make light
with any two things
if you rub them together
long enough.

Dear Evelyn,

It itches
after a leaf falls.

The only way I can die
is slowly.








It has rained 13 times.

I am hunched over in the doorway of my house.
I am planting trees.
I am building a very impressive hotel.
I am drowning in a lake shaped like a person.
I am asleep or worse in a boat.
I am sawing off my Siamese twins.
I am crawling into your mouth.
I am being eaten by a carnivorous flower.
I am putting on a carnivorous flower costume.
I am pouring myself a glass of water.
I am pouring the water on myself.
This is how carnivorous flowers drink.
But it is raining.





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