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Poetry

Paul Piper - 1 Poem

 

 

Triage

After a few drinks she put her hand on his leg just above his knee and gave a
slight squeeze and said see, marriage isn't so bad, is it? and he felt her
tropical hand and lost where he was going

Starting at a different place and looking away
his vision blurred

Hey whiteboy mov ova heah do you got it? you, fukka, they are so drunk
and near the border of homicide, the wind of fear seizes him as they step off
the curb, miserable fucking wind-grit miserable wind

Ovaries, pearl onions, perfect/moons
what do they have to do with homicide or love or fidelity? what do they say
in the dark, the churning maggots of our words within them?

She put her hand on his leg and stroked him
his vision blurred the border of homicide and perfect moons

His vision blurred and he could no longer read the words
and he could no longer hear the words she spoke

The rest of the trees, largely red alder, came down monday, were bulldozed
away by tuesday and friday morning was the groundbreaking. The
convenience store would include, among the usual sortees, a plastic toy
made by a village in China

Built on the backs of african slaves, my country.
prolix/the face/of the/world
the wind quivers before explosion
ikat icon O i can't say i can't hear it
starting at a different place and looking away

A plastic toy made in China called BombWar
kids throw them on the floor impact triggering
a digital voice that flatly states the number of casualties
the scoring cards are separate

After a few drinks she put her hand on his thigh, like a nervous bird it was, it
was not as he'd imagined, her nervous

His vision blurred and he could no longer read the words. He looked up as
the light dimmed. a moon, a pearl onion, an ovary
acute and avuncular

The rest of the trees on the backs of slaves a plastic toy a few drinks

The woman who'd been mauled by a cougar spoke to the reporter of
exhilarating pain

Do not confuse eros with the wind

The rest of the trees fell Monday & were bulldozed into spindly piles the
earth scraped to ocher mud, the color of infected wound. And on impact a
digital voice announces the number of casualties. Separate cards were
required for scoring. The cards are made in the Phillipines, where they are
decorated with demons capable of metastasizing a curse

Silence punctuated with birdcalls, a sound our ancestors heard

His vision blurred and he could no longer read the worth of it all. He stared
directly into the dimming light. When he looked back the pages were ash he
hadn't even finished the book it couldn't end before he finished the book

The woman who'd been mauled by the cougar spoke of exquisite pain as her
hand tore off, and heard only silence as the cat bit her neck and lifted her
the wind of its fetid breathing don't confuse the wind with eros the silence
punctuated by birdcalls

After a few drinks he laid his cupped hand on her arm which could have
meant many things, the silence our ancestors once heard

The toys are manufactured in China by a single village "to promote
harmony" the whole village manufacturing these pieces of plastic crap it
takes a village to do it, such unity, a division of eduCon who claim the game
motivates kids to learn math skills

Cloudy and windy head bent into it the fuckin grit hey whiteboy don forget
what we toll you

Her hand on his thigh working up high after a few drinks his vision blurred
he could no longer read the words the silence unbearable how could it end
before he finished the book

The store stocked plastic toys that killed on impact manufactured by a
village in China that taught children how to add, a flat voice announced
casualties, a flat voice punctuated the silence the player with the most points
wins, the woman heard wind as the cougar picked her up by the neck