Nathaniel King

---

---

pet cemetery y2k

burying a soft white
beanie baby in the backyard
& updating my status

to feeling cute
might cremate later
this page may be unsecured

insecure connection
with the natural world
can we be real for a second

can we presume
this motorola flip phone
has no minutes left

gtfo malaise
might rectangles
of sunlight restore us

to our former bliss
might we all leap forward
into new lasting contracts

& see our fingers
touching cute as buttons
across forgotten browser tabs

---

---

---

---

NATHANIEL KING’s writing has appeared in Berlin Lit, Butcher’s Dog and Lighthouse. His debut book of lyric-essays, Ghost Clinic, was published by Broken Sleep in 2023. He is currently a PhD candidate at Royal Holloway researching folklore and hauntological poetics.