top of page

PJ LOMBARDO






THE HILLS ARE CLOTHED WITH GLADNESS


Where the vale meets cerulean and curdles lush

Brides twist over ankles Bleeding silk


Memory cuts a scope in the desperate grass

Unwell eyes bubble in


O artificial heat on a rainy sunday

I beg your ceiling for a friend & i clock those steely termites

they are nearing they are nearing





MOUNTING THE CHERUBIM IN DARKNESS


Wind-cupped inside a volcano Howling at the husks of nightclubs & cowards


While batteries river their guts out

Inside dusk-dried rivers of lion


I’m flying and i think to myself about beauty or beauty’s dimness


Thru that puncture in my cerebellum

I hear your nose refract & flutter





SCATTER THE NATIONS WHO DELIGHT IN WAR


Through my spine I beg for solemnity

A scattering


Ground-glass movement Strings across the fault lines Mammal tears pinch down a statue’s cheek


While the misty soil of thunder crushes through


I’m cradled in these bitter alms


I’m bugeyed in the intersection Catching your compass on my tongue like a prison-break





HER GOWN IS INTERWOVEN WITH GOLD


Glorious movement of coprophagia An outrageous negligee curls its larynx


Laughter sews craven every thing

Heiresses skin cattle

for this this meek parade An unconcerned lesion a burning bridge


youre goin down


I forgive the cowards when they only falter I forgive my cowardice with beneficent terrorism


PJ LOMBARDO is a poet and book critic from New Jersey. He co-edits GROTTO, a journal of grotesque-surrealist poetry. His work can be found in The Quarterless Review, Mercury Firs, the Brooklyn Rail, Lana Turner Journal & elsewhere.


bottom of page