citron (rejection as a lemon) and poem for tumblr user vanshistuff by JP THOM

Fissured Tongue Series

Two Poems:
citron (rejection as a lemon)
&
poem for tumblr user vanshistuff
by JP THOM
Fissured Tongue Series Vol VI | May 2026

“Fidelity" by Rochallyi. Acrylic and oil on canvas, 210 x 220 cm, 2025

CITRON (rejection as a lemon)

apologies, but today i expire. examine my ribcage & you
will
find a bruise resembling a date, proof within inspection,
remains
taken up space & soon will be replaced fresh yellow,
green
or earthy, morse-coded human beings hardly desirable
especially
when lacking a key, compass, guide, ledger or table of
content
you’ll look me over, then overlook me for another
reminder
of youth; fish fry not synonymous with sacrifice or
atonement
before, i wasn’t ready: i prepared by marinating in the
awaits
of declaration to begin again still stumbling & i pang
from
wanting to be chosen, hoping famish could find family
within
your hands, your nostrils, in the slaloms of your mouth
___________________________________________________________

poem for tumblr user vanshistuff

at least once a day you should read a poem that slices you clean in half. & then you go to the post
office or something to maintain your sense of tedium. a lukewarm drive will be silently narrated by
things you can’t shake: viscosity of melted skin, woman holding limp child, tesla trucks, tiktok girl
who went viral for hating tesla trucks & tbh her rage is not misplaced. they’re ugly as melted skin,
akin to a trail of bodies or mass graves. luckily the post office is only five minutes away, intrusive eels
recede while you get into character, become the anonymous blues clues postman. walking back to
the car is wider without my mother. resentful towards time i begin each morning with a broadside
guillotine & move as a continuous shot, one take, all action

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About the Author
Crista Reid (she/her) is an artist, permission-giver, and somatic therapist. She weaves the art of communication, creative expression, sensuality, archetype, and movement as pathways to creativity and aliveness. A life-long Coloradoan, she can often be found meandering in the mountains with her dog, posted up in a hammock in the forest, flowing on the dance floor, or moonlighting as a typewriter poet.
Integrating poetic expression with the sensual immediacy of embodied awareness, her poetry has been featured at East Window Gallery as part of the collection “DISGUST: unhealthy practices” (2022), and in Ouch! Collective Vol. 2 (2023). Follow her creative journeys and visions at @creatrixcrista on Instagram.

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About the Work
In June of 2022, a tiny portion of the top of my right tibia was fractured after my road bike caught a rock on a bike path in Denver. This poem is about the fragments of life I collected while my leg was locked in position to heal for the course of six weeks. In a way, I see it as a prayer of gratitude, and of prayer of reckoning — with the hurdles of mending the body and the heart. Special thanks to A.M. who was my support during this time.

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About the Author’s Process
I am most satisfied with poetry that comes from a stream-of-consciousness flow, a sonorous, chant-like quality at times emerging through repetition and rhyme. Poems, I believe, are prayers to the moment, each an invitation to enter more deeply into the human experience. My companion in my writing process is a 1934 Webster’s English Dictionary. This tome provides me with synchronicities, synonyms, and spectacular entry into words of interest, little line-drawn images included.

About the Artist
Michael Thompson is a Chicago-based artist working in a variety of mediums including print-making, collage, kites, kinetic sculpture, memory jugs and fake postage stamps among them.

"The collage is inspired and informed through the isolation of the pandemic, they are a rather random assembly." www.michaelthompsonart.com