Assail as sail ails as
by Dora Malech

Read the automated transcript.

I task— ask it.
As sign sings a

post- STOP,
bleeds past, pleads best

our nil fetters in four letters,
claims curse, claims cures,

tries rites,
tires—
I rest

so after hope’s test, step so to the fears
in a red address, redress, and aid,

after my fashions, say offer’s in math,
in simple subtraction, in traction, sub simple

for, like, minds, skid line from
my you’re all mines, null. Yes, more may I?

Alas, no. Also an

obit—an . . . and better torn at, bite, and be,
than never . . . and so on. None. On. Hand averts

real day, an end rote. Intuit or thank your god
or do one in. And take your tight turn, already.

"Assail as sail ails as" by Dora Malech, from STET by Dora Malech, copyright © 2018 Princeton University Press. Used by permission of Princeton University Press.