by Donald Pasmore
I don’t want to hurt you but I have needs—I will take
your eye at the optic nerve and your adulthood has been
missing for years. You know your pituitary is already
too far beneath me, and there isn’t much I can offer
as an apology, except how grateful I am to you
for hosting. In exchange, accept the only gift I have
worth giving, you will never be without me. I will hold
you from the inside, remain as constant as you
will let me and there will never be any absence
inside you—I won’t leave
until the worms and soil take
up residence as your next guests.
Donald Pasmore is the Editor-in-Chief of 149 Review and is on the Editorial Teams of Poet Lore, Third Coast, and The MacGuffin. His debut chapbook, Dulled Bodies was a semi-finalist for the 2025 Iron Horse Literary Review Chapbook Contest. He attends the MFA program at Western Michigan University, and his work has been published or is forthcoming in Permafrost, Cherry Tree, storySouth, The Shore, Harpur Palate, and others.
Hawaii Pacific Review 