Post on 05-Jul-2018
transcript
8/15/2019 Growtastic
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8/15/2019 Growtastic
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Index
One — Norma Jean
Two — Fake Flowers
Three — Moths
Four — Empire Hands
Five — Quintet
Six — Yr Told Year
Seven — Growtastic (Prominent Ocean)
Eight — Attaching photographs to paper to set on fire
Nine — Charcoal
Ten — But Butte
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Norma Jean
I’m looking for some kind of romance
I want to break the surface
use your ribs as guideshoping my pale ghost doesn’t fall throughmiss your call
your skin’s ripening
I traced the lines when you were sleepingtripped in your hair and when I left
light from the message you sent tried to call me back
I couldn’t be back
You’re settling for me againnew ball gowns sift by
traces were left of the hairs in between the stiches on my sleevesfrom when you wouldn’t leave
from when the charcoal couldn’t trace the outline of our room
Somewhere the pads of my fingers don’t slide awaywhere you don’t shake
8/15/2019 Growtastic
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Fake Flowersi
They fell over my handsnapped at the stem
I’m not with frailty well
the reds, blues, yellows all grew at each stepthe concrete bloominga sun-stroked hand pulling the lever toward itself
ii
We existed in the same framefor a night at least, curled inside the glow
you smiled at the colors, spoke on them but it will never be so simple
“It’s good they never die”I could never catch your tone
restlessness set into my leg with a calming effortyou spliced it around the idea
It was a false dream convincing me it happened
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Moths
I framed your bodyspider cracks formed in between the glass and wood
my hands reddened as the final pieces came together
a light bulb held suspended where your heart satso thick with moths floatingeach one trying to escape
wings brushing the cracksnot changing anything
You haven’t moved in a year
each night the light flicks ona pop I swear I heard
drawing them closercovering the surface completely
until the backs of the wings brightenedtracing the outlined patterns like flashlighted hands on empty walls
I swear I saw your face
I wished I could wrap strings around your fingertipsrest them on the ends
the gentlest pull then them fallingIt would release the edges
they would fly out, dropping yousnapping the tungsten
You no longer standing
or the spider cracks that remained of your figurethem moving away, patterns mixing with the stars
just close enough to grasp hands bending heavy fingers until they grow together
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Empire Hands
I felt a forgettable ghost warmthkept high and returned to me in bowtie and done mascara
we were sleeping to drink and drinking to sleep
the worsening dried in-between parked car rivalriesand beating the steering wheel to return the lust
Cordiality made it worth itand while you were sunsetting,
I was bottoming out beneath my own hand mountains breaking under the pressure of steam from the mouth of your exhales
you fogged up the mirror between breaths between knees
Then like a slow dance you slipped back to me
and I couldn’t be themand instead we didn’t
I stayed in your hair
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Quintet
Back behind me the lake is burningand I thought I lost you in the fog
a bullet through the blue from the heat in my chest
How many miles away can smoke signals carry the distance between usthe distance between us is settled
it’s been weeks since I calmed under the break of a coast
I always wanted to watch you break between ribswatch the words crawl out
not clutched in embrace
Myself kept calm within cold morningswaiting to feel the rush of willowed velvet touch
never hearing the echo from orange sun rising, steaming
Birds singalone on the branches
buoyant at the bending and creaking
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Yr Told Year
Build houses with meexcite the whistling wind through your hair
be defined by what you brought
the heavy smile rests
Etch your name in the back of my hand
the heat precedes youI’ll have something to look at through worn veins
it’s at least an end
I’ll lie in the grass with our breaths togetheryou’ll look into the brightness
anything in the daytime doesn’t surviveeyes fix on the specks surrounded in color
You curved around the star patterns and fell back down
I stayed in the soft edges
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Growtastic (Prominent Ocean)
No I’m not
I’m fixated on the brightness
the hummingbird tattoo spoke in redscolors mixed telling of thrills
You won’t see me
Waters run deep between usthe wake is harsh, white,
capped at the top and pulling back into itself
How many more have seen you
Poked into your skincolors create new veins, pulsing,
etching images out and turning them dry
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Attaching photographs to paper to set on fire
You showed me a crooked smilerooted in him holding sinewy shaking muscles
walking away, your black winter coat,
red hair washed over, strands sittingyou offsetting each other
Straining at the grip left imprints on palmsnails imbedded
creaking and popping bones between breathssharp inhales, rocking, shaking,
exhales calming before the tension launders
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Charcoal
There were leftover marks blended in with the paleness
not outlining anything
in hopes to throw it away they meant nothinglines and lines and lines to create a patternit felt right
it didn’t make it better
Thoughts of growth wanedgrowth felt right and away
The marks were forgettable
fingerprints meant nothingand the black washed away
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But Butte
Hairline cracks started on a granite endsplintering, pushing up dust
breaking, falling, rolling,
slipping down the slope bending dry grass
Tufts of brush stir
animals racesteps scatter
dirt whisks
Soft hills hiss in the sunclean wash rushes from hidden streams
a whistle in the grassa bird cries dully
Messy lavender protrudes the air
wind carries fire across hillsnew algae blooms
cotton shirts wick water
Valleys’ form and shapeshutters between the gelatin frames
flickers from the light behindunattainable to grow on stock