"Nights Like These" by Kyla Houbolt

Awoke at 12:12 on the 12/12/21

and thought about words

and how dogs laugh

where we can see it

and cats

where we do not.

The way ice cream

will never deliquesce

completely

though it tries.

Look, there's the sword of truth

lying on the ground

in a vacant lot

underneath a broken

"For Rent" sign.

So, come on, we said,

name that fig.

It's yours.

And then

they invented zero.

Kyla Houbolt (she, her), born and raised in North Carolina, currently occupies Catawba territory in Gastonia, NC. Her first two chapbooks, Dawn's Fool and Tuned were published in 2020. More about them on her website, https://www.kylahoubolt.com/. Her individually published pieces online can be found on her Linktree: https://linktr.ee/luaz_poet. She is on Twitter @luaz_poet.