For Amy Hirayama, Denny Stern, and Eric Acosta, during Altar / Alter at the Cherry Pit.
Originally written through and performed with the music of Denny Stern and Jim O’Halloran.
a poem about Arkansas in mid spring it’s like summer it’s like cool no clover just the thick and the birds and the trucks and the churches
THE FLESHY ONES
THE ONES WHO KNOW
THE ONES WHO COME
THE ONES WHO
COME OUT, COME ONCE
COME ALL, COME COME
when I dream I dream in shadow limb and shadow breath, the image of the breath that moves in and moves out as shadow, can you please pause and find the right position position anti position
THE FLESHLY ONES
A SINGLE
FLASH OF FLESH
AND HITHER I WANDER
A SMALL BOY
ARKANSAS
big canopy and big canyon, the grand canyon of the south where a lone tower watches perched above shitty postcards dusty from last summer and there’s no no no cold drinks and it’s in the 80s and the 90s and the sun is a heartbeat and the sun is a child leaping up you just want to sleep (don’t want kids still)
AUS ARK!
LAND OH THE LARK
AND IT WAS CHECKED
CHECKERS
SONIC
CHOCK FULL OF BURGERS
what’s your favorite postcard, what’s your favorite alleyway, your favorite veranda when you need to get off the veranda when you need to get off ol pioneer spirit when you need to jump into the bush or maybe it was the bush or the monsters in the bushes keep you away keep you wading keep you thick with sweat keep you keeping on keeping on creeping along the veranda just underneath the lip the veranda the veranda oh Miranda oh Miranda the new brand of Miranda-style verandas
IT WAS THE LAST OF US
THE LAST TEST
THE LAST HOORAH
THE FIRST PAW
ARKANSAS
SITTING AT THE STATION
FILLING UP
STARING OUT ON A HORIZON
RADIO SCREAMING
KILL THE WOKE
AND MAYBE LESS POETRY
a spasm in spring jumps above the crest of the wave and the man no bud in one hand but a shadow bud in it he says hey he says and puts the boat in reverse and there are no flames there is no fire just shadow fire TV fire the next moment is up for you it’s hot and the land is thick with fake memories and I’ve got a creature in my pocket Google Maps says it’s 5 stars
STARED AT A SPHINX
ROCK FORMATION
IN THE MOUNTAINS
FOREST ROAD RED
TICKET TINGLING
winter tales forgotten altered the Denny done did it done done played the done done did did done did he done did it done did he did he he did he did he licked it
THE LICKETY IT
REMNANTS AND RITZ
CRACKERS NOSTALGIA
AND THE CONFEDS
FLAG LEANING
TOWARD THE DEAD
we was all dead once we was all a ritual we all flashed before the light before the flash there was the bulb bulbous we all bulbed before the lite the late the lit it everybody was lit up marquee the horizon was like Bellevue, naked city in the rain, keeping me call and it rests its neck on my shoulder, oh Bellevue, how I love staring at you, your shoulders, your neck, your breasts, your windows are freckles your imposition is intimacy the world is quaking how I wish to see you topple and then topple atop me
TOWARD THE DEAD
TOWARD MCCLURE IN SPRING TIME
TOWARD PAUL E. NELSON IN SPRUNG TIME
SPELUNKING AND PLUCKING
TOWARD AND THEN
SOME
PUKING
THE REST IS PUKE IS
WITCHERY
IS WITCHHUNT
IS INSTAGRAM IN PARIS
it was itchy brush / fiery sky June’s entrance / Ohio I love you
SUM OF THE PARTS
SUM OF THE SOME
SUM OF THE SUN
A WELL LIT SUN BEFORE
A WELL CLEANED ALTAR
AND THE CEILING RANG
eric performance art piece perfume the perforation the perf perf pass: frown piece
I AM FROWNING AT THE BEACH
AND I AM FROWNING
AS I AM MISTEPPING
THEY’VE SUCH
BEAUTIFUL GOLDEN LOCKS
WHY AM I FROWNING
lake Washington meets wawa at the core of the precipice of knowing, my mind rattled from years of LSD years of amphetamine psychosis psychopop poptart battle bots the lake wawa at the lake of the mind or on an island your orange my aplet my cotlet my bed of Neils, a thousand Neils emerging out of a bed of gnolls it’s dawn of the dungeons dusk of the dragons the dragging on the drag story time in perpetuity and on the flip of the same coin neo nazi cons on the periphery with bullhorns and rifles shaped like bull horns and I’m in Philly several years ago remembering the stick the way the bodies can cram themselves become crammed become become become
LAKE WASHINGTON
WHERE WE COLLECTED SPECIMENS
FOR OUR PERIPHERY
FOR THIS WEEK
LAND OF PASSAGE
LAND OF PEOPLES
MUCH OLDER THAN US
LAND OF LAND, OF SACRED, OF SAKE,
AND HERE I AM SACRED MEETING
THE LIGHTLY DRIED EDGE
OF THE GOOSE POOP SQUIG
and a flute goes flutter flutter fly away and I remember our earliest days that today’s couples therapy reminded me of, the couch the bedside the car, the land we sped over, sinking in and wandering away
LAND OF THE LUST
LAND OF THE FILTH
LAND OF THE PASSING PEOPLES
THIS TOO SHALL PASS
OUT OF THE GOOSE’S NECK
GOOSE QUACK
GOOSE CACKLE
SPLAT AND CACKLE
KUM AND GO
CACKLE AND SPACKLE
a place you can go where no one drinks and everyone hates
DRY COUNTY
SILENT WHITES
TALL AND FIRM
FACE LIKE A PAINTING
FACE LIKE A SCREAM
IN A PAINTING
THE MUCKRACKER
THE CLACK AND AWE
A PLACE
A BUFFALO RIVER PLACE
CRAMMED ON IN
CRAMMERY
keep it moving, to make, to make an offering, to make a make, to make an altar, to make a cram, to cram, to scram, to slam, to clam along the shores of the infinite clamness
THE SILENCE AND THE DEAD
GODSPEED
SILVER MT.
RAILROADS AND BROKEN TOYOTA GLASS
SHEERS
DO YOU REMEMBER MONTREAL
DO YOU REMEMBER FIREWORKS AND
THE DEAD
AMAZING
I AM ALWAYS IMPRESSED
BY YOUR RECREATION
YOUR WAY OF
DANCING
WITHIN
METAL
A
YAWN
A
VOICE RECORDING
ON WHATSAPP
LIKE A WATERFALL
OF BREATH
ENCODED IN TEXT
AKA
MY VOICE
AS BITS
STREAM
BULL
SHIT
TALK TO ME
LIKE I TALKED TO YOU
IN 2022
BEFORE YOU STOPPED
TALKING TO ME
OR LISTENING
WHEN WHATSAPP
UBIQUITOUS
BULLSHIT
LINGER
LANGUISH
SPUTTER
TINTED
INCON
SEQUEN
TEAL
LIKE MY EYES
AT 16
BEFORE THE GRAY
TURNED EM GREY
AND THE WOLVES
WICKEDLY
PRAYED
UPON
NOTHING
CAUSE HEAT