Allen Seward

the algebra of Need

I will pull off my beard 
and 
wear it as 
a coat
I will spit teeth into 
the night as I 
remonstrate 
all things
and 
puke naked into 
the breeze, into the mouth 
of 
the light mist.

I
will pick pins out 
of my spine 
and 
feed them to 
the 
fish in the toilet. 
I will skin 
myself alive into the 
sheets, drink 
gasoline, start to gag
as I bauble my 
words, paint them,
and 
hand them out 
the window. 

all good things are 
gone 
in the wind, slobbering and 
dumb in the pink 
night, 
strung up in the 
breeze: be still, I will not 



Allen Seward is a thirty-something poet-thing and mill worker. He resides in WV with his partner and three cats.