Patrick Stevens’ most recent poem to appear here was Bow Ties, published as part of Contributor Series 11: On Birthdays (July 2012).

A Brief Word About Butterflies
By Patrick Stevens

I haven’t written one of these in eleven months
and the last one was trash, so who knows
when the last actual poem flowed out
of my hips, the birthplace of all good verse.

(The shit ones spray out of my nose.)

Fair to say, I suppose, that I’ve been without
much suffering these days–an unfortunate thing,
as now I’ll have to start writing like a grown-up,
Haitian societal norms and Danaus plexippus

and so forth instead of the oh-so-comfy
“Mom never bought me a skateboard,
so now I have sex with men,” wah-wah nonsense,
words wrapped in adolescent blankets

restless tangled criss-crossed feet peek out
from jungle-print bed sheets, dreaming
of those halcyon days of splendid angst
and all the pretty girls I never loved.