RED DOOR 31

Year of the Would-Be GOAT
Are you that desperate for meaning
that you search for it in the absence of birdsong
the change in traffic lights
locker and page numbers
the time being told by the clock?
Are you that desperate that you put two
and two together, when they never wanted to mesh?
That the lines separating the tiles might prophesize death?
That you think maybe someone will die if you don’t hold
your breath?
Why has meaning left you? Whatever do you mean?
What do you even mean? Be still, be still, until you can answer that question.
You’ll split hairs between the world
and yourself, trying to answer that question.
You’ll split hairs between fallen
and fell, trying to answer that question.
You’ll slip heirs as the brush to the comb, trying to
answer that question? The sleeve and the mango; the samba, the tango,
the tail-end of tales from the telltale end.
You’ll split hairs between white and
Eggshell and black, the mirror and yourself, the soul and the act,
the pit and the well, the well and the pit, and well oh well.
Stop splitting hairs between here and there. Stop
splitting hares between bunnies and rabbits. Just
stop splitting altogether. Soda, soda, soda; that’s it.
Stop splitting heirs between ruined and damaged,
Soda and pop, stop.
Stop splitting hairs because others do not.
Left: Oracle by Rey Fairburn
Year of the Would-Be GOAT by Beatriz Seelaender
Beatriz Seelaender is a Brazilian author from São
Paulo. Her fiction has appeared in Cagibi, AZURE,
Psychopomp, among many others, and essays can
be found at websites such as The Collapsar and
Sterling Clack Clack, where she acts as Creative
Nonfiction editor. Her novellas, upcoming in 2022,
have earned her both the Sandy Run and the
Bottom Drawer Prizes. Seelaender’s poetry has been
published by Inflections Magazine, VERSON [9], etc.
“Canon Familiaris”, a chapbook in which she turns
canonical poems into poems about her shih tzu, Uli,
will be released by Really Serious Literature in 2023.
Rey Fairburn is a queer, neurodivergent
poet and artist. She has been published by
Lupercalia Press, Fauxmoir, and Plants and
Poetry Journal. You can find more of their work on
Instagram @reysenchantments
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