Tropical Pavlova / Against Geese / Birthday Poem

"The secret to perfect rice every time is not having seven children." — Bardia Sinaee

Discordia does not, it turns out, hate everything. Every other week, we share a piece of new or gently-used work from an artist who's earned our respect.

There is art that moves us, and there is art that moves with us. This is Fellow Travellers.

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Tropical Pavlova

What did
lemons ever do
to Jamie Oliver

he’s always
crushing one like
it owes him
money

fuck the war
on nuggets
fuck the no-fuss
family feast

the secret to
perfect rice every time
is not having
seven children

hear that?
my weeknight
go-to is
complete silence

what does
the dog smell
that’s where
the food is

earthworms
fruit rinds & piss-
soaked concrete
sweet sweet
rubber tires

ozone smells
electric
starlings make
staticky chatter
in the trees

feed my heart 
to your
ribs
let me eat
in your
house
that’s where
the food is

floating above
the countertop 
a man with hair like
a cockatiel

shapes hunger
into a tropical
pavlova

this gorgeous
pud is a celebration
of the Southern
hemisphere, he says

you won’t
believe
how easy it is

Against Geese

I don’t mind
geese but I love
how much you
hate them
I would
take one out
for you
if I could stand
its squawking
as I wrung
its neck like
a mop head
the best I
could do
was yell hey
get out of here
when they
hissed at us
at the park
hey I would
never hurt
a goose I guess
flinching
at the horror
of another’s pain
is survival but
I also enjoy
the thought
of doing it
for you

Birthday Poem

I love a long
toenail

the firm
coin-edge of it
strumming 
a callused heel

not as a kink
to be clear

though my
pleasure
is not chiefly
scientific

what else?
half an eggshell
in the compost

the trick is
to pour
bacon grease into it
from the pan

I can’t be
the only one
who does this

when the
fat cools
it looks just like
a candle

I can’t remember
what I hoped
to be doing
at thirty-four

but rest easy
little piggies

one day
I will be
the poet laureate 
of toes

“Against Geese” and “Birthday Poem” appear in Flinch from our friends at Horsebroke Press. Subscribe for dirt cheap to the These Days monthly zine on Patreon and get a copy, or order one direct from their Etsy Store.

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BARDIA SINAEE’s latest chapbook is *Flinch*, available from Horsebroke Press. He is also the author of *Intruder*, which received the Trillium Book Award for Poetry, and was the editor of *Best Canadian Poetry 2024*. He lives in Ottawa.

Interested in being a Fellow Traveller? Email your poetry, prose, visual art, etc. to discordia.sucks@gmail.com. We pay (not much), and pieces are collected a few times a year in a small print edition.

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