THREE POEMS by KAYA NOTEBOOM
July 7 2025
1.
Victorious racer Tadej Pogačar
nipples pearled open air
mug of tea molding bedside.
Once I had it all
despite residence on the wrong coast
two years a laggard on most fronts
I believed I could seduce
a New York
podcast producer.
Actually not.
Weeping into shoes at work
I saw his olives on her olive page
I heard it
her olive voice
perfect age profession breast density.
All the while his benign brain tumor
flirting me
northsouthing me
checking in.
The first-person tumor is mine.
Malignant
older now
wrongcoasted.
I stayed while preferring not to
walked with license
holding out to be on that podcast.
2.
Crawling to health
in clandestine ways
Alaska could be
attached to Canada
and it is.
Italy could be an island I
could be a delta. A garage sale
is a ski move like
needles are throats.
Where is my toothbrush?
O, spinning out. Where is
my yoga mat? O, drying out.
The side door let
a bee in. Allergic
is the air that
respires in not
my lungs but
the laundry room
dehumidifier.
3.
I love Dave Matthews
or, his character in 2005 screenadapted Because of Winn-Dixie
or, the butterfly song
in the straw choked pet shop
for young orange shirt Anna Sophia Robb
or, Opal
who gave a sad candy.
Telling her it tastes like jail
and why he went there
for music.
Wetwinged
not knowing anything
especially not what never means
I am always knowing less
than a better man
or, the man
wettipped
telling me quarter century lessons
culled from hickory core
viola
mandolin
bouzouki.
I ask copper kettles
what does never mean
to people who remember
typhoid love?
There is a person who induces aphasia.
Find him.
In the straw choked pet shop
monkey
duck
dog
Anna Sophia Robb
hushed outside their cages
not knowing anything
especially not what it will be
he sings
under influence of sad candy
of rootbeer core
you are like a butterfly.
Kaya Noteboom is a writer in Portland, OR.