Poetry
aura
layers of disappointment in the discovery
that Kirlian photography is part of the vacuum
that this could not be a surprise that nothing
will surprise life on this plane
you can’t drag the body of a dead enemy
through the street because there is only
the idea of a street and mental illness or
abstract truth with lowly physical footnotes
what diagnosis might come screaming any other sky
here lies sudden unexplained adult death syndrome
flying to a secret location to shoot you in the face
as a kind of sport
there is too much detail to process and thus no end
that excludes the way everything is exactly now
flat and measured by the gray roadside the ride
to work the heart strings
the dominant literacy is extremely close
things are all the size of an entire world
invisible or rendered as the ground for
walking god’s stupid earth
forgive me father for I have not captured
a pterodactyl in time for this year’s joyathon
as I promised I would at last year’s joyathon
but my faith is strong
there is a finally great range to ride on considering
he animal shaped cloud off the coast connects
the landscape with a riot of the mind
to be young in the eyes
Contributor
Arlo QuintArlo Quint is the author of Wires and Lights (Rust Buckle, 2016), Death to Explosions (Skysill, 2013), and Drawn In (Fewer & Further, 2010). He's currently teaching "Poems Against the Demagogue" at the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church.
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