Two Poems by Mel Burkeet

You're Century Gothic

You coy hinge, occurring here, center

trench tonight. Your theory once gritty,

then thin, once ice. Tiny touchy honey

out crying to the county youth. You itchy

notch, you’re rough right through you 

root. You enrich the choir, the chore, 

the concert, the cough. Cut your cornet, hi 

your hornet, you grouchy cogent neurotic

not. Through intercutting hunger, retouchin 

yogurt: hi cutie, crouching crotch. Couchin 

cot, rogue irony ringing ought. Rotten otter

gotten goth, you urge, you contrite Huguenot. 

Corn or corner, core ochre, too. Retching rice,

tighten your trot. You, the heroic corgi, erotic

choice. Chic yurt, the goer or the gone. 

The goner, the gutter, young throne, hung

thrice. Hectic itchy ethnic cinch, etching ech 

ghetto tonight. Eyeing ichor, I hunt nice.

And I’m Garamond

And dragon and manor and grand

nomad. A dorm on Organ Road, a

Grand Am damn mad. Grandma

and manga and Dan among a groan. 

Go on Dad, goar an oar, drag a dam,

random nagging ramrod man. Moon

on roam or room on moan. Rang an 

ran a random and. A Roman aroma,

adorn a door. God of Radon, Dog o 

Or. Drama dogma grandma roar. 

Mood doom madam, mod magma

Adam. Odd Madonna ad, nada no 

mod and or and or and Mammon.

MEL BURKEET’s poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in Gulf Coast, WebConjunctions, and Best American Poetry. She won Narrative’s 2014 poetry contest and was a finalist for this year’s Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Poetry Fellowships from the Poetry Foundation. She lives in Columbus, Ohio and teaches at an urban public middle school.