DISSOCIATIVE LOOP
pretty tiring some days,
pulling threads so devoutly.
purled linoleum skitters: dropped
pills tessellate swirling dust.
petrified tea stains & dry,
perspiration-tinged soy dregs.
parched throat, soiled dishes,
past tyrannies simmering dirges
—ply that sweet dissociation.
pause the swollen drowse,
peel tight skin downwards:
pallid, tortuous swan dive.
pray this suicide disease
proceeds through small deaths:
phantom teeth & soft drownings.
pretend to sleep, dream.
Excerpted from antibody by Rebecca Salazar. Copyright © 2025 Rebecca Salazar. Reproduced with permission from McClelland & Stewart, Penguin Random House Canada. All rights reserved.
Rebecca Salazar (she/they) is a queer, disabled, and racialized Latinx writer currently living on the unceded territory of the Wolastoqiyik people. Their first full-length collection sulphurtongue (McClelland & Stewart) was a finalist for the Governor General’s Award for Poetry, the New Brunswick Book Awards, the Atlantic Book Awards, and the League of Canadian Poets’ Pat Lowther Memorial Award. antibody is their second poetry collection.
Publisher: McClelland & Stewart (March 25, 2025)
Paperback 8″ x 6″ | 160pp
ISBN: 9780771020476
