Derrick Austin
This or That
Courgette over cucumber.
Homosexual over gay.
Melancholy over despair.
Screen over screen.
Net over net.
Tweet over tweet.
Song over figure.
Ass over teakettle.
Popcorn over pearls.
Venus over Cupid,
Folly, and Time.
Summer over winter
though I feel more hopeful during the latter as the sun overtakes
ice and dark nights.
Derrick Austin reads “This or That”
Giant Phantom Jellyfish
You misunderstand
my nature. I am practical. I sweep
my oral arms over hydrothermal vents.
What’s it like
being discordant
internally and with your world?
Is it because you live on something
that your kind can be so
distracted, divided?
I’ll let you in
on a secret: because we emerge
fully formed from the brood chamber
I suppose we’re like a unified mind
without a death drive or dreams.
Derrick Austin reads “Giant Phantom Jellyfish”
Derrick Austin is the author of Tenderness (BOA Editions, 2021), winner of the 2020 Isabella Gardner Poetry Award, and Trouble the Water (BOA Editions, 2016). His third collection, This Elegance, is forthcoming from BOA Editions in Spring 2026.