Laurence Lillvik

American Sonnet (Canon)

We cannot see you for
the bundle of yucca flowers
obscures your face and 

I don’t think you exist.
A paltry sum
of partygoers passed 

out by the slip and slide.
You cannot feel their regret
today. It’s canonical, that time 

you spoke to the awkward
girl in the cemetery,
fucking canon bro. 

That cemetery with
the Ukrainian grandma
holograms across 

from the Walgreens
that cranks classical muzak
all day to keep 

the tweakers on edge.
They don’t care,
they drink bubble tea.

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Laurence Lillvik (Portland, OR) is the author of Catharsis Is Never Fully Shorn from Glee (2026 Trident Press), the editor of Skullcrushing Hummingbird, an international arts and lit zine and the founder of KalloHumina a musical improv collective.