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Monday, April 9, 2012

Ads in the Heart of a Ferryman


Ads in the Heart of a Ferryman

The silver paper, silver like cigarette wrappings
kept behind glass at bowling alleys and dispensed with
the pinball mechanism of dowel and handle,
falls. In the touch of foil and fingers

I taste giandojòt, Portmarnock’s beach and the Irish coast.
Harbour ghosts stretch banners, celebratory and immaterial,
ads in the heart of a ferryman.
The ocean stretches.

A thousand Smiths bring forth their saving work
with all the strength of dandelions.
Over moon barren, moon besotted hills
the darkness of Jericho, the darkness of New Canaan

falls the same.
Cold clarifies the brain.
Butter burns in a pan.
She says she has forgotten herself.

For dinner, poulet de Bresse and a storm.
Fictions flit upon the soul and on the ground bats’ false shadows.
The short pulse she expected to go on did not. There is escape, the quiet loss of summer heat.
The orchid in the room has Victorian leaves,
a fracture, oblique, blood peppered blooms.
It is how we stamp the land:
cut and letter pressed, split and spread eagled,
black and white.
The night traces the plane; the earth lopes the map.

Advent falls. Lent Falls.
Fee-fi-fo-fum, I am tethered,
a man with confidence,
both coasts in sight.

3 comments:

  1. Love this, j-dawg. Especially the penultimate stanza. "For dinner, poulet de Bresse and a storm." A man with confidence, indeed, but understated and deeply discomfiting. I think, yes, of Merrill (without the ghosts).

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  2. The thwarted rhythm and uneven lines are what I like the most about this. It has a novella feel to it-- a narrative threatening to expose itself. "She says she has forgotten herself." Ahhhh. And bowling and dowel are nice near each other, don't you think?

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  3. I love the short sentences in this poem: "The ocean stretches," "Cold clarifies the brain," "Butter burns in a pan. I love what Drew also quoted: "For dinner, poulet de Bresse and a storm." Don't know how to pronounce this dinner though, but love the combo with storm.

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