Epitaph Family


Endlessness

A vast and incisive cold front ploughs the ground clean of human dominion
Without malice or mercy, white ice and light from the afterwords come



New Cancer

Robbed from the sky of early march in that strange winter when the lost
Geese honked vague threats toward our respective bunkers where the bitter
Reserve rye was eyed by the hour, They came to live in us
Like black spots on our lungs, tainting each breath with a wisp of unfiltered truth



Breadlessness

Surrendered    taste    for limpets and    shore-mud
Dragging her hem through the limpid soup of day
Rototillered    monochrome    the clouds    scat    wool



The Hearse-Men

We are driving under the influence of the skip james moan
The road is a long black switch
My brothers and I never flinch



Fire and Brimstonelessness

After the delicatessen burned, nothing much happened for awhile
I lay on the trampoline and smoked Luckys

The beauty that buoys this vessel is subliminally corrosive
I fancied myself until the pink cloud turned



Anonymous

Fell asleep counting the sheepish maneuvers I've edited from the galleys
The fool's gold you talked into my head makes a sound like fireflies trapped
In a child's fist



Swimlessness

The clay embankment    a swift drop    of temperature before the rain
The wind    unhinged    ran    contrary    to our mock-ups
When we found her diary our breath fell out








Blue Print


In the district of our flourishing
loss practice, before I disturbed
your aquarium.


    (happens in to one's sleep)


After years of inarticulating desire,
as soon as possible, the rent.


    (like pollen)


That I have counted to and from ten,
literally thousands of times.


    (nor have I felt before this)


And seen the hour tuck the sun
into a sky-blue bonnet.


    (I will never let go of)


A pomegranate, in the atrium,
on the condition of, inclemency.


    (this tipsy banister)
    (that flushed patina)


By the flickering hum of said aperture.


    (incendiary)












John Duvernoy is living in Upstate New York. This is subject to change (both the 'Upstate New York' and the 'is living'). His work can be found in Octopus #8, and a chapbook entitled 'Razor Love' is available from letter-press publishers Unlock The Clockcase.






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