Saint Maeve

Livingston Manor, NY (Summer 2021)

is a story
first about places
of worship and

winter’s
verbose
soul

like the cockatrice
coming home to
roost like a photograph

aspires to distill
feathers fiery i
want to say

i burned himself
at the stake

ruddy rectrices up
from drifting smoke
addled measurable jawn

miserable i’ve been
unable to live
under these conditions

of resounding success
of first impressions
proof of laziness

i burned himself
at the stake

no monumental ever
but one’s life
the after-father eternal

alabaster born in power
i wanted i
remember slower motives

drawn from records
of dawn discovery
momentary challenges form

i burned himself
at the stake

long forgotten architect
amidst the inferno
of genius vandalized

permanent civil war
naves columns vaults
facade transepts crossing

and apse plans
and photographs burnt
plaster models smashed

i burned himself
at the stake

snowy february morning
explicit appreciation homage
and circumstance of

life her personhood
list of words
and phrases eurub

i like ike
bob’s your uncle
gale poets exaggerate

i burned himself
at the stake

everything you need
to know paginated
drunk knocked off

course young poets
old whores lol
bolaños let loose

like balloons struck
from chest stunk
old sneakers times

are tough times
have always been
tough in time

i burned himself
at the stake

square pose bubba
gump shrimp selfie
stick sagrada familia

20g gunpowder 20g
ethiopia 20g bitter
20g still water

cooked uncomplicated surveillance
software in neon
syringe of hammers

o i burned
at the stake

hours without touching
another freeman’s tongue
welcome says amygdala

sorcerer’s teaspoon of
distraction of slight
of face of

wild fathers’ simile
like ruddy fears
exploitation so rips

i burned himself
at the stake

fulsome feathers from
his dictionary good
advice hard advice

advice deeply swallowed
in that suck
called breath brooklyn

rusty
premeditated
agent

i burned himself
at the stake

life’s a story
first about places
of worship and

the venous cockatrice
coming home to
roost among memories

of photographs over
blazing patterns a
genealogy in light

An Urge to Flex Everything

“I seem to be very and/or, / with an urge to flex everything until it loses / what I secretly feel to be its false polarity.”

‘Solidus’ by Ron Padgett

Why am I making myself
do and be things that I don’t really want to?
Because I have an idea of what I should be doing and/or
I don’t have an idea of what I really want to be and/or do.
And/or both. I seem to be very and/or,
with an urge to flex everything until it loses
what I secretly feel to be its false polarity.
E.g., there is a such thing as good and
such a thing as evil, it’s just
that they aren’t opposites.
Am I a good person? Yes, after
a certain point, and no, after another.
Deep down I’m just down there, a kind of gurgling
black Jell-O that doesn’t have any idea
of what’s going on up here. Up here
I have on a baseball cap and have
a vague desire to fix the closet door.


Source: Padgett, Ron. Collected Poems. , 2013. Print, p. 503.

Photo: Main Street, New Paltz; Nov. 6, 2020; Joe Gerace

1870

chassepot rifle, 2019

thoughtless deference to free men swimming by
who mostly don’t—though sometimes must—
respect the point of exclamation! / part and not part

[sirens wail] [she moans]
bean can and bottle top; variable dimensions
are we talking about the made-thing or the making-thing
drifts into reverie

bamoun duala ewondo gunpowder
igbo kikongo lingala yoruba sango twi

both; i am the rooftop bar
i am the school of fish
basking on the sidewalk; red neon
no tricks; implicated lion; times square

i needed a title so i stole one
i needed an image so i stole one
i needed a poem so i stole one

words phrases and acronyms
we know ied compression of language
tetric choices lean against acid blonde
miniskirt robed in telephone pole
we imagine dirt lipped centrifuge hands
connected behind cross-shaped crane
scrapes human tissue cloudless sky

Chistsomis (Crystal)

Wikipedia Poem, No. 957

Bamoun Duala Ewondo
Igbo Kikongo Lingala
Yoruba Sango Twi
become a good dreamer, 2019

tissue
from cloudless skyango twi i am the made-thing school of lion. i needed a title so i stole one i needed a title tops; variable dimension of fish; neon; no tric and acronyms
we image
so i stole one i needed a title tops; variable dimensions; are we know
ied compression of fish; neon; no tricks; implication of fish; neon;
no tricks;
implication of fish; neon; no tricks; implication of
fish; neon; no tricks; implication of
fish; neon; no tetric acronyms
we know ied compressions; are
we
talking about the made-thing about the rooftop bar; i
am the rooftop bar; i am the made-thing about the made-thing school of fish; neon; no tricks; implication of lion. i needed
a title tops; variable dimensions; are we know ied crane scrapes human
tissue from cloudless
skyba sango lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo
igbo kikongo
lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala
ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala yoruba sango lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo
kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala
ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo
igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala
ewondo igbo kikongo
lingala ewondo igbo
kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala
ewondo igbo kikongo lingala
ewondo igbo kikongo lingala yoruba sango lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala
yoruba sango lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo
lingala ewondo igbo
kikongo lingala
ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo
kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo
igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo
kikongo lingala ewondo igbo
kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo
lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala yoruba sango lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala ewondo igbo kikongo lingala
ewondo igbo kikongo lingala
ewondo
igbo kikongo twi i am the made-thing of fiber school

To Psychoanalysis

Wikipedia Poem, No. 938

after Kenneth Koch

to die.

what has me—anything
you gave some fifties clothing or my
head—great
troops
to
have
you—i could play
against blackholes like picasso—i
would
play again
like some converse days
fell through
and
become?
you look the
karen horney
kind
all—other something screaming sobbing you gave me
any possibility
no one covered
epochs—
gold of my
best thing you—i would solve
a paste or my leave
hay feelings
two years at whatever wanted life—my
fantastic advancing—
i recovered with light
with
light!
comedy!
tragedy! tragedy! tragedy! tragedy!
tragedy! tragedy! tragedy!

Look Pleasure in the Eye and Don’t Think

Wikipedia Poem, No. 937

Flowershop, 2019

shirt headphone cord
in her pikachu too much
unrepairable bear yards of skin

all the soupy stooped cross
walker drug dealer drug dealer drug
dealer data demon jazz drummer pikachu

shirt my t-shirt headphone cord
in her mouth too tight flowershop
too much unrepairable bear all skin

all corporation an infant crying warm
and such unrepairable beauty fat boys who care
the corporation an infant crying

warm and youth petal unrepairable bear
all the standing-room-only no way too much unrepairable beauty fat
boys who care the corporation everywhere asphalt rubber and i

Alex Hudson

Alex Brown
“I think that the paintings are merely voyeuristic due to the fact that the images are not mine and I find myself looking for a story within them—a story which I try to expose by boiling out the proverbial impurities,” Brown said in a 1999 interview.

When Hudson died in 2014, Alex
considered his lifeline cut. He was
not going to do the social labor that
many artists regard as part of the
job, but

he had a few solo exhibitions in Paris
and New York, including a
miniretrospective at Galerie
Richard on Orchard Street
last year.

When Hudson died in 2014, Alex
considered his lifeline cut. He was
not going to do the social labor that
many artists regard as part of the
job, but

he had a few solo exhibitions in Paris
and New York, including a
miniretrospective at Galerie
Richard on Orchard Street
last year.

When Hudson died in 2014, Alex
considered his lifeline cut. He was
not going to do the social labor that
many artists regard as part of the
job, but

he had a few solo exhibitions in Paris
and New York, including a
miniretrospective at Galerie
Richard on Orchard Street
last year.