Elliott Schwebach

REM Cycles

my dad was chopping mushrooms
          placing them into boiling water while we talked
our kitchen was very different back then, and small

          his neighbor tried to sell me jazz
by a band called Garden Path. I gave her eight dollars
          though I couldn’t find a CD player

in each of two plastic tubs she held
          a live pufferfish, water and sand
preparing to demonstrate blowfish sex for the class

          unexpectedly, the liquid rose
it rose, spilling out onto the floor
          we tore out of the room to escape its baffling spread

Elliott Schwebach is a writer, educator, and friend. He has lived these last few years in Baltimore, Albuquerque, Tacoma, and Fort Collins, and is currently reading poetry in a Wenzhou high-rise. He loves good espresso, kava, and 12/8 ballads, and his friends call him “crocodile.”


Banner Art:
Photo by Kallerna, Wikimedia Commons, 2021

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