Sent & scented with 10 emoticons

U R a “swan” inside my
afternoon.

Delirium is a trinket
cut in half.

2:50: river plaid state
2:51 gymnasium lily

In the bath tub
I wrote NOTES

about
yr fleece and yr math.

I wrote a Lincoln and baked
myself awake

I swam all summer,
indeterminately

(your) oblong
comets

thumb velvet
in an indentation

of purring.
2:53

Eleven dogs cried
the color of reptiles,

plus or minus the inside,
hurt in Leffe

a pattern
in a tablecloth repeats.

At 2:54 (some articles of loathing)
(the Teflon in a river *

of beer
U R November,

what) is a year
Black,

and a few
ellipses

) *)
in a summer powder

Copyright © 2024 by Tan Lin. Originally published in Poem-a-Day on October 4, 2024, by the Academy of American Poets. 

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“The poem plays with abbreviated forms of address, employs time stamps, and mixes non-alphanumeric elements with alphanumeric characters to create something like a short-form text message whose non-alphanumeric characters look a little like emoticons in a love letter.”
—Tan Lin