Vanessa Thill

Dark wet grin, flood in

on a glue-thick beat

Caressing, wounding

touch of cloth

mouse-meet, crawl around it

taking small bites

lucky me, to hold her shape

huge mammalian snake

muscling up salt crags

She twisted toward me

vining, opening

numinous hell flower

The pelted-up wreckage of a bear tarp

cored, taken over from the inside

this cave I went into didn’t exist

Ox-all, Washenol, Mistolín

Shearling, Kyoto, Wyoming

And, clean her teeth with a nail

wait with tense unknowing

craning, like a new pet owner

for whimpers or claw clacks—

Vanessa Thill (b. 1991, Berkeley, CA) lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She has recently exhibited her work at Nicelle Beauchene, Payfauxn, Hood Gallery, and on the digital platform Screen_. Since 2014, she has produced exhibitions, publications, and other projects as Sorry Archive. She has worked as an arts educator with Nurture Art and Arts in Parts, and currently acts as a Curator at Large and beekeeper at Knockdown Center. She regularly contributes critical writing to Art in America and other publications.