‘Love Song’ by jessie knoles

we can see orion
in the south, the days are
getting longer

As a struggling writer who drinks on occasion, nothing speaks to me more than “i wanted to write a poem / but then i got drunk”. This new poem by jessie knoles, with its simple title of ‘Love Song’, is a sideways smile, a vague fragrance you can’t quite name. Factoids about constellations, burnt asparagus, and the cardinal directions of places in the Americas enhance the one moment of unreality—“it’s been one month since / my last funeral”. Despite mentions of dying and loss, knoles shows us a love that forgets, burns our dinners and doesn’t shower on the regular, but nonetheless a kind of love that I want to learn more about.

The Boiler