Preview Issue Poetry: Alison Ross

Salvador Dalai Lama
by Alison Ross

Salvador Dalai Lama paints mandalas of melting clocks. The clock hands meditate, in lotus position, on the idea of temporal ephemerality, then burst into flames of "o mani padme om," a chant that mimics the humming of an electric appliance.

Salvador Dalai Lama dreams he was a mustache in a previous life. As a mustache, he abused the faces of men and accrued negative karma, causing him to morph into an elephant with spindly legs.

Salvador Dalai Lama always hated being an elephant, so he shaves his head in rebellion. His head as shiny as an eternity of funhouse mirrors that reflect reality as it truly is: a mustachioed monk who paints melting mandalas on a landscape of reincarnated alarm clocks that meditate on the idea of temporal frivolity, then burst into sparks of sun that only imagine they exist.

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Oblivion
by Alison Ross

Oblivion is a startled cat