We are all initial
-ly named what

our families can say.
Glanced and category

theorized, my morphism
survives to asterism,

even as dopped cabochon.
To rock the dome

is a beautiful breakage,
if it happens. Cleave

define or indefinite
-ly or to infinite

stroked to part
-icle spark—when

-ever it turns
out my grain can do

all that and unbag.

A Brazilian born in Texas (dual citizen), Vanessa Couto Johnson (she/they) is the author of the full-length poetry books Pungent dins concentric (Tolsun Books, 2018) and forthcoming pH of Au (Parlor Press, Free Verse Editions Series 2022), as well as three poetry chapbooks. Recently, VCJ’s poems have appeared in Rough Cut, Landfill, Angel Rust, and Abandon Journal.