Verb Mood Disorders

Indicative Mood:

Coyote ran ahead of the car on the highway.

Where is God? Where is the man?

Subjunctive Mood; to express desire, hope, or demand:

The man, beloved by his hidden family,

wishes that Coyote leave him be.

If he were left be, he would pray to god

instead of haunting Coyote.

Imperative Mood; same as the second-person present tense:

Be the glove over the hand bitten

by any wild animal. Be the voice of

nurture. Record running away.

Slew toward home. Be your phone’s guide

through harvest farmlands.

Breach the empty road’s darkness.

Mania; all three:

glances of headlights, carpets of kindling

in wait to explode in wildfire, sour as sarvis berries,

sticky as junipers. If Grass’ mythic veins breathe the plodded dirt

of a coyote, a kiot, the killed breath of a disorder, would be

sullied by prayer instead of being depicted,

cannot be given reins or bits or the 4H choke chains

made for German shepherds.

Be the swallowed rocks in order

to digest.  Its culprit eats the membrane slowly poisoning

itself with its genes and meds. What will become of the

clammy sounds of the noise canceler in the room?

Jeff Pearson is a graduate of the University of Idaho’s MFA Program and has been published by Noble / Gas Quarterly, Black Rock & Sage, Otis Nebula, a capella zoo, Heavy Feather Review, Shampoo, Salt Front, Axolotl, Barrelhouse, Moon City Review, and Open Minds Quarterly. He is The Managing Editor for Blood Orange Review, Poetry Editor for 5×5 Lit Mag, and an instructor at Washington State University. Tweets at @legoverleg.