Cameron Morse

Tipton Poetry Journal – Winter 2021

Coronavirus Tutorial

Cameron Morse

Heat haunted body heat haunt, let’s begin with you trapping sunshine in your dreamcatcher of photosynthesis, your mash

of molars and bicuspids. Let’s begin with the thermogram of an ice-skater. Are you not in your flesh meat also angelic? Eat,

fell child, gnaw lettuce leaves and caterpillars alike. The earth will not requite the dark-eyed marshmallow. If you want to arrive

at the virion, first don the peplos of the Mediterranean, shrug off your shoulder strap, kick off your sandals and slip into the salt mirror

sheen of seaweed. Somewhere in the depths of your body you may find an agreeable host for the starry-eyed saber-toothed

nimbus-eater that will gumball your lungs, gum up the gear shaft in a endless succession of cranks, crises.

Cameron Morse Morse lives with his wife Lili and two children in Independence, Missouri. His poems have been published in numerous magazines, including New Letters, Bridge Eight, Portland Review and South Dakota Review. His first collection, Fall Risk, won Glass Lyre Press’s 2018 Best Book Award. His latest is Baldy (Spartan Press, 2020). He holds an MFA from the University of Kansas City— Missouri and serves as Senior Reviews editor at Harbor Review and Poetry editor at Harbor Editions. For more information, check out his Facebook page or website.