Jean Foos, Square Toe, 2019, acrylic paint on packing forms, 11 x 4.5 x 3.5 inches

Seditious tremor bites bio into nice bits but what then
whatever you do, genie, anticipate the Lombard-like fastpitch affection
with space around the windows for view with cold herring
fixed without bleeding over the moviola in a biometrics mirror
prevailing wind overreaches glassiness; bring on singed storm rudders’ howl
over there, a bowl of cereal on the baby’s head
data set romance offset—peerless fibrillation to the south southwest

So this is the surround life, this stitching of rays
measuring sheafs along tri-factual fold, warm underside of a room
more human than human dead or alive enlightenment down moment
stereophonic history disrupts the daydream glow, oops, my turn again
cross the threshold it’s open radiant squander, got text glue?
grid frisson dash dot hyphen emoji prank style languor hydrophrase
crystal ball effect hearth approximate circumstances remoting goods border bodies

Astonishing meme to green ‘to be wetted by water’ agrees
this desert road word trip doesn’t end with a “book”
as pinnacled night under rock form known as whodunnit collapses
yes life does, predecessor PR department. No art doesn’t, hourglass
by the grain desiccates, or flipped, de rigueur mourning attire
light being reflected twice on the inside of the droplet
throw voice with the word “glisten” attached into a pool

 

***

Cue the two-shot where they find each other and
mark time with snowfall, agreeable plume, dotted arc lines’ intersect
our surface break magenta midnight summer temple of the mind
emphasis on device, collapse lines into hovering leitmotif echo chamber
conduit in riffs almost—almost no homage to the synopsis
brevity washing across tincture, dune formation of the alpha sand
magic nonsystematic pattern calls. What’s this edges? Give me thought

And so the return to Tennessee reads road as weariness
dream theater marquee, what approaching sounds like at a distance
a scan a limb a horizon’s low frozen at winter
in large race-flag checks of royal and sky-blue
river’s oxidized blur, elderberry season adrift on a slow current
the poet enjoys existence, flashbacks weave: Raymond Chandler slept here
the sound of transparency murmuring in the sun-struck sky

Write in moments on mental horseback pacing: this was fun
extrudable levity notwithstanding the it of the refrain holding on
thank you for not being past but concrete, turquoise association
road trip actuary, a thousand tires later and blacktop bottleneck
side stepping onto the street outside my merry rustle evaporation
liminal architecture of self elevates, hovering just above the pavement
an alternative future can be imagined, as opening once again

 

***

Resumption of soft tissues’ collateral coy on par: cumulus ruin
in safety orange municipal settings to set our team apart
all kidding aside a loud vest is a handy garment
parallel words we can stay in, spring from, fleecy ciel
tag sale re-creation zone in umbrella’s shadow on sidewalk
perverse detours of oppression? we are not to get discouraged
calm ruin labels night, an average thought recalcitrant age denies

More than a space to be crossed, fascinated twice over
an opening or arrangement by which another day began again
sliced word bread spread across the page, fan of cards
on the notion of absolute still of night an amazement
no interest in hurricane antonyms, the snowball searchers hum summer
farm machinery heaving along furrows, raptors scan a narrow sky
armed radio narrator ups surveillance my compliments to the poet!

As some crow says in the early bright summer morning
“afraid this is the only way to get back home”
and heat’s carcerality sanctions fractious humdrum in cool ruby slippers
sent from my cliff hanging body of reading crowd revelations
:settler claims of authentic log-splitting, crop rotation, mud rivers
I saw grandmothers everywhere. Not everyone wants to be followed
yet from above it all looks shiny, mea culpa ma’am

 

***

2018: now my appliances get even more out of me
shallow dent of word’s impression now a pleasant echo
round trip path annotation, Queens to the town of Oberlin
as latitude would have it a parry a fractal declension
and the sun has nothing to say when I evaporate
and a hearty afterall on the empty plaza cradles them
concentrates this space for correspondence for a moment as if

A record of the flagging energy of the bell ringer
still ringing, my walk home was lengthened by a diversion
as if retained a vellum makes a river a plain
old dreamboat pivot, somewhere there’s customer experience as a body
forlorn collusion clutters my path as I stroll or lope
O wicked paywall, see no voice, cursed be thy stones
adorned as we are with pulleys, ropes, patter of refrain

Thank fates for you, new pair of eyes for two
as such sight unmoors—a little inward, transitory and blurred
pacing stanza in place of chaos, (coulda been a coda)
voice tracking tone intends ennui, how’s Sunday work for you?
as my old lasso would even without shoe to free
carrion air to the melody detains spectral notes mid-plain
wherein Jean’s eyes paint places with reader beholder the blue