Consolation Prize
I need a vacation using only my body as suitcase
maybe get a colonic so I can re-pack it
full of more shit I understand the desire
for ambiguously categorized things
the muted monitoring of the flesh
like the ferryman that has a soft eye
for the wandering ascetic I can barely
sit through another summer’s dirty feet or
the pastel fiction of a picture
in the doctor’s office I can’t stand the cold
either those glacial drifts drink blood a terrible fact
but there is more clarity in the light at the end
of one day than in all the summer’s sun
Jasmin Ziegler graduated with an MFA in Creative Writing from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. She currently teaches Creative Writing and Literature at Anoka Ramsey Community College in Coon Rapids, Minnesota. Her work appears in Whiskey Island and Poetry City, USA. She recently was selected as one of the 2017-2018 fellows of the Loft Mentor Series in Poetry. She lives in South Minneapolis with her partner and their son.
