i got you flowers
i have made
a plan to cut & lift the skin
of my arm
to plant a bed
of daises within me
eventually: white petals will sprout out of my arm i will flower
for you
find each blossom
in my appendage’s arm
essentially: when i am with you the clouds are in me
& the rain comes from within me from the ground of my garden
fighting gravity to lift its droplets
up and out of my marrow
& to the daises seeing
their first shard of sunlight
all of the colors are there in my arm
where the dirt & blood mix
to resolve the progression
to make a florist out of me
blinks
i cry
because i am on earth
and in heaven there is no earth and no heaven
*blink*
& @
the airport
TSA
finds the blade in my pocket the metal
made of my longing
4 u
*blink*
i remember your breath as it was
a flamingo in love
*blink*
wrap me in a sheet
& place me at the edge of the woods
i am in love with you a ghost in search
of your shape
*blink*
lay me in the brook
the water as my pillow
your touch
my tomorrow
*blink*
walk on my chest i will protect
you from the broken glass below us
*blink*
our love would be much better if our bodies lasted forever
sky prism
please stand clear
of the closing desperation
a cloud knows
when to leak
nature is good
like that
embrace
the eventual invisibility
of your journey
plastic was once
innovative
& fossil fuel
revolutionary
forgive me if I'm not
an entire rainbow
life gives and takes
the color
as it pleases
better to have broken
than to continue
incomplete
I want the smoke
fire is my ancestral memory
Copyright © 2025 Otis Nebula Press. All rights reserved.
M.G. Martin grew up on Hawaiʻi island in the town of Waimea. He currently works as a high school administrator on the island of Maui. M.G. is the author of U U O U (Cyberwit, 2020) and One For None (Ink., 2010), and has performed on stages in San Francisco, Oakland, Los Angeles, San Diego, Portland, Boston, New York City, Seoul, and Honolulu. His poems have appeared in Tinfish, ZYZZYVA, Juked, PANK, and Bamboo Ridge, among others. M.G. has also led writing workshops for the Red Cross, the Hawaii Council for the Humanities, and was a 2018-19 W.S. Merwin Creative Teaching Fellow. You can find him online at mgmartin.ink.