05_Ashlee_Zlatna

Ashlee Zlatna

Poems and textiles

Parsley Breath
(2023)

FOR KAYA 

Make your lips into the letter A everytime you say “A” 

srpskA lutkA mojA lAcu noć 

No smudgy endings like in English, we have safety: tented A. And we have the honesty of sound and a thorough selection of verbs, and, we do have, the three C’s, 

C Č Ć 

You didn’t cause it 
You can’t control it 
You can’t cure it 

Make lips into square and don’t touch teeth, čhocolate, lower lip wriggle down: ćhew, clench teeth like dried fish bones, looks like ferns crisped through Oregon’s August and I’m inside on Zoom and I’m outside walking to the nearest ćhurch to attend an Alanon meeting Alone 

like when I imagined we went to lunch and you got, the three B’s, 
Bacon 
Brie cheese 
Basil on a silly waffle to share. 

Struggling for air everytime we interrupt. tongue slightly up, wind moves through mouth and fingers and eavesdropping pumpkins 

I have 50 hearts and 20 lungs, my brother in law says 

Sitting on the porch and watching the baby sing, 
head swaying left and right with smile and so much language 

Uu, lips tossed out 
Hh, like hell
Ll, tip of tongue in top of lower teeth he was the last adult to love me 

(Lj)ubav 
to love 

Introducing Lj as not L. 

So many J’s are adding spice, Jesus!
Make words and foreigners mouths feel buJan, like myself: dense with idealism 

can’t even remember the foundations of the three C’s 

because I am here clearing out your storage and not invoicing clients 

Shaped into, three more B,b’s, 
Balkan 
Barbie 
Bitch 

Don’t be spastic with your mouth, 

Mom, who wasn’t there to count the pearls on Bride’s veil 

remember it is not in Serbian nature to have vowels next to one

another 

Put my hand in the fire that they themselves do not speak by the rules 
If I can understand you, without a title, we are one language