Instead

            1

To each his own
severance package.

The Inca
hacked large stones
into the shapes of
nearby peaks.

 

            2

The eerie thing
is that ghosts don’t exist.

Rows
of clear droplets
hang from stripped twigs

instead.

 

            3

Pain brings attention
to herself.

Spine on Fire!
Trail Blazer!

(Thinks she’s hot.)

Out here
slim trunks bend
every which

“Instead” from Partly: New and Selected Poems, 2001-2015. © 2016 by Rae Armantrout. Published by Wesleyan University Press. Used by permission.