I am Elvis Presley

The world is both continuous and discontinuous

The new generation touches each stage of development
And dies

A poet is like a cow

Punctuation was invented by printers
And not by grammarians

What moved
When the capital moved from Milledgeville to Atlanta

The children grew up and left home
Some of them had children of their own

A wounded soldier languished for days in a trench
Later the medics applied maggots to his wounds
With deliberate intent to consume his necrosis
And the maggots brought dangers of their own
The risk of infection from their pathogenic feces
The newspapers stood poised
With stories of survival or decease

How I love thee beloved
Only now do I see
That I never loved your earlier avatar

Plants grow in the cracks of the concrete
Laid bare by the filling station’s demolition

Joyce’s wife suggested
That he take up a career as a singer

The Marx Brothers were nephews
Of a member of Gallagher and Shean

Coleridge Shelley and Keats all published poems
With the word fragment in the title

A poem can accommodate statements
That are neither true nor false

When you focus sharply on an object on foveal view
Do you still see objects on the periphery

Schoenberg definitely met Brahms
But did Robert Johnson ever meet Charley Patton

Sometimes a printer is also a grammarian

The Bronze Age gave way to the Iron Age

This poem was first published online

An irresponsible clown

An actor once quoted his father as saying
There are two ways to do things
The right way and my way
And they’re both the same

This claim is correct
With one added provision
Show me that my way is wrong
And I’ll change my way

Assuming the prehensile grip
To be negligible
Which is most noteworthy
The camouflage
Or the projectile tongue
Or the independent wayward eyes

I used so that
Down the elusive corridor
Did you say that
(laughter)
What about these terms
Yeah
Right
They put them on tight
Everyone mentioned
They calm down driving
The last one pretty sure almost
(laughter)
Alright
No I thought you said you had folders
(much laughter)
How are you
What are you up to
They almost all fall
(more laughter)
And all one
Representing the most of one day
Ah no
Did anybody how amazing is that
You should not be at this school
Horrifying?
Yes exactly oh yeah
He jerked it off I don’t know
Now that was all happening after the bastard game
Sunny inferences I know I know
Sunday Sunday and I weird
No No No No No No
Well I’m going I’m told
At that they’re going to pick up
Just a little I’m rock
When we get there we’re going to take packages
If they don’t like that it’s be bright
And then muscles under cover
(laughter)
Unless it’s mechanical or something
I was a little worried about that first thing
For a while
A little jab
Does wonders
I wonder
Get a big siren
No no no
When after the tornado
All the people who laughed
That’s the sense
What would appear
And what wouldn’t
I thought I was going to bring
If anybody had
And so finally
Did I show you the sense
The fuck is
Everyone is Welsh
You could send it as
I’m thinking about I got definitely
(laughter)
I just saw that
Another nipple
It’s not dire
Um no honey in the clasp
In fact when she
Listen in the moan
All that thought was perfect
If they meant it
They under the mixture
They
Pretty sure
Separation two-fer
Life’s a dog
The last after my way
There they talking about
Not carried away
Not the value
Yeah
Right
Might be something of my pleasure
Will of what a one
You know
That was later
That one kind of tap
About that time
There was a woman
That doesn’t feel like
I thought to myself
That’s not it on the olden one
Ranch hand purfling
The only one
Wasted um
Good
That got a perm
You lack on ‘em
That resonate with always do
But still ideas

You walk past people talking on the phone
Though often they are silent
Apparently listening

But when they speak
It seems a foreign language
As sometimes no doubt it is

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alredditolder
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Won’t somebody tell me of what she speaks
Walking and talking
Animated by interest

Some joy or triumph
A favorite person or show
Family or friend or commercial blockbuster

Or is it crisis and conflict
Irreparable loss
Or the injustice of undeserved injury

Of all the boxcars
The fifteenth has the most charming graffiti

Ah the exigency of it all
Fragmentary obligatory fresh and masterful
Cathy Ann it’s you again
Who died twenty years after we broke up
I see that you’re still involved
With those projects that came swarming
From the nascent construction sites
The circuitry the water lilies
A song about a chair and an athlete
The normal passages of kingdom-come

The children were encouraged
To join the folding club
To bring their towels their collectible game cards
And their tiny suitcases
Emblazoned with mythic charactery
Of pixies and salamanders

One of them dances gingerly
To Bible songs played on an ancient phonograph
But frenetically enough
To bounce the insects from his pockets
To which the monitor murmurs
So there is no interior

When I recall your enthusiasms
I convert them do I not
Into theatrical executions that tread the line
Between pictures and accounts
Leaning a little toward the theoretical
Toward the frankly alternative
A conflict perhaps
Of ontogenesis and irreality

And how have you scripted me
I drive to work wear ordinary clothes
Try to keep track of the passage of time
It’s not as if some revelation is at hand
I was just wondering
How do pigeons navigate so succinctly

Some mysteries are completely uninteresting
Sexual orientation
Origins generally

Some mysteries are completely unmysterious
The wealth of nations
The ubiquity of cruelty

Tasp to simulate the circum flex
Nemo quality on the knife sedge
Don’t be so judgmental
From the adjoining apartment
In between palpable blows
Of unmistakable pleasantry
Which is mero gratifying
Stacking the blocks
Or knocking the mover
The mask is a transmitter
Ostend slippy concealment
Unbeknownst %ages
Did jever notice
How waverly
Is the solid line
Everybody owns the backslash
So eat pus to the asshole who’ll
Stake a vertiginous claim
Mistah Kurtz
Another gum lug
Snog as a gam
Trends and tradeoffs seek equilibrium
Newtonian riddles
Cornet tasp as dupecation
Senatized for your projection
Nothing’s so condescending
As perineal disturbance
The seams are the best part
Why plow them under
Verses and vermin
Crawl in and aout
Do I represent myself
Well then why don’t you grab a partner
Large and containing mezzotints
Guess what’s she shoulding
Still in the downward clause
Probably best not to mention
That particular implement
S J C E S & repeat
It doesn’t take a mealymouth
To object to the braided fata
Wyrd sisters and their potable Hermes
Things as such in the room
Distinct preeminence
My kingdom for an enclosure
Thy soft-conched ear
They have a grass called saw
The entomology of ant or sand
Portents and masterclasses
Give as a glimmer
Circulatory ideogram
But still
Don’t reject it just cause its green
The system is slipping
More like a gelato maker
Than a conveyor belt
The marrow and the limp
That starts and ends like fire truck
Vol 3 the uses of pressure
Transcendental Assessment of Secular Performance
Homophonic transliterabion
Hail hail Hedonia
Home of characters without phonemes
Char of hamsters within phenoms
Champ in some star*

A young woman stood in a driveway
Talking with a big smile on the phone
Her laughter rose from contralto to soprano

A juvenile katydid on the staircase
Of a public building drenched in insecticide

The angelic voice
Of boy or girl what does it matter
The ancient melody
In some forgotten Levantine mode
If an opera of Thebes had been made
In the time of Oedipus
The sphinx would have sung in that key

The song’s sinuous torturous beauty
The voice of boy or girl I cannot tell
Ah it’s a little girl who stands before me
But I’ve known this all before
The song ceases
She stands before me naked
Or as good as naked
But luminous and therefore not of earth
So bright I cannot make out
Her features or her sex

But how express much less account for
The panic dread she induces
And how delineate the strangeness
That death’s angel should come in the image
Of a shining child

If it’s got a bicycle in it
It’s terrible

I insist that you accommodate my sensitivity
To accommodating the sensitivities of others

I resolved not to write a poem today

Praehandle venuit im aldencer roquaista moror
Urguentire quaist legar mauic mercder
Chost baninun
Dalvrak ris cempsit stellang cris tembreak
Denc var lest en lengdon tembago
Quairit objendidor glan dridi
Sem dimimen sag smebre thurqueasticis
Savto subros subnom langleng alleng cominjo
Cleg macalb qui cenduc vlo
Jambent hel ne feneme
Darval smre incipt ma dalvrak praesit zonce sbentenich
Ob sisten ohete u ohetet ven obra ma
Lang u langar ma ber lang udermech
Elluseon melnich dravalo hinc jero cambat
Vuscade mer donaded quis numdam teket
Quairisit urguentit rit ueguentis
Fer zu tuscat
Ber gnog quant quist
Qui se nost criandes ledo
Theed bequave ibliut mirgost twe
Dalvrak u tembre darval u topens
Eschwewe en diambent
Quist verd tembreant jambent
Linea sant ensicker tuosfergay
Denc im lidane zur set vergvernal
Marsdo meniter marsdo fradamines
Wratan mech criando pramapson domge
Tarro skedelite amin fergmant wo dis lag
Met pramo augen fergmat
Quit ems nost hec Cung
Nondam helt dem glaven
Pread ihr trement
Segreta nost
Nundom tem lengtopens em lesten durmtopens
Empli grauisde inorta quaes ne dor sic
Symfla bhle g’sammte
Ind ver lengdondis verd aerealide pafors
Glaver elsue glaver
Arsbry ob huz’ broncencis
Quit sogen stellandlosment
Segre darval guis po verd dalvrakis
Tembres langone u nostgic
Oferdimoni straeostons vergiss dilivitousment trand
Effreant wralcraw
Effreant bimensic
Effreant pulverulent
Dimostic uder dis carmoman
Dost cried gamoman
Estleng
Do perst en exriguits fegmeniter
Min fo eada deg epil ne
Si ber cog
Obsit ausmect
Ryhth ma nondam
Setledir alegamine lest
Ryhb ma nondam quist
Meyledir dembeder lust
Finitra fo dis denust ber di moros darval cimm dis straeostim
Praenunc becred ofergibten
Ber twe spician dir cirt cirtes meomes
Daelist helt extemb viale hic
Qui quer quist sisten ob sbenten
Segenfor nimor quist teneter
Ris anmal
Umplicate
Vra sin sinn
Ma ber roticose
Semtembs juse stel sin
Quist kimpson vol lesin
Juse fruhir premps
Alzuwehzu snet Shoepre
Hir cern tembre
Ja ber pormato woc
Tembdor blance langlin u kurzlin u cidant kurz
Tembdor blance tuscatich u duch spire sclav ausgibt
Quet gapfens gemingue dorst da tembard ecqaestit valend
Eg nac tembardes witmendid
Eben lengdones en tweplot
Allis tem lengtopens en pramos topens
Finitre mag u derkbil splen laceridens
Ens tembreak ven even
Coma eincenetmal
Comlic cleface
Clef glaver ceg quisquon pelledre
Prama decidi twe fertnat funeft ellude dae ca
Vergs uncryt
Sestort
Stlang
Sprument
Nemir betang mo mensinin mar coito selbsterb
Coito ob cogto
Semsting
Uderplachlich penswip agramtich oputz thrapuet
U fra knang sebint
Le segan puisde le segan
Porto-orpan simulu cient fargue
Initule mitsitlle vrebes kin thurqueast
Imga uderthriw cetbifor sickeridad sputer errepte
Volando umwrat mlod plina u blandula
Osserplo minlich im crebre stehlen
Osservis cogn da hel
Beoplo lic do beorwisk aus boken trac pisc
Nesoin femn machiesone cone velclyo
Nelang impenswip nelang caerea mitsit
Iff se eberdan yern ascastiy
Kin sitemedicon rotix ofer se finitre
Bes queint urguend vor condinuit
Uderthriw linea sembre
Ber sagen ptimo ob sleck
Eck ob sonilish facir unruvel
Wit pther exerguise
Den masca
Exerguio
Jectove imparsut nimine
Domgine melnich lesen uder
Paeren scenit sonen trid myors
Scenit sanit senit selbverd alverd semsit
Nun aldles wir stell ast furerens
Nen vorstalle morid implux
Cris morid peromn secul sclor
Arlang vibref criando inderst
Sessid ba darval ob dalvrak
Et tu mihi mihi
Zonce nadsat agen sbenten
Oter tition furerens
Furen ven
Paz ne dirder suberdend do ma alze stehlmin
Tembdor vit stym
Tembdor vit selbst
Gens omniverd
Val sembreverd
Finitre derkbil
Ob derkbil therthor
Si mech ver valendes darval
Sic poten maldlich
Iber valendor dalvrak
Exiguer nosostroms
Mardar nost
Ofergibtos nost

Nobody ever wanted to do something
Just because they were ordered to

But even soothing imaginary darkness
Declines into decadence
Not necessarily the murderous crush of the ignorance machine
Nor even the oblivion of splenetic self-repression

But even the darkness of tranquil restoration
Falls soon enough into decay
The invisible flowers wilted and exhausted
The flies that murmur their admonishing complaints

I’m content to be multiple
But hell is other people
Most of whom are in my head

Awaken from compliant slumber
Overcome self-imposed subjection

One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve
One two three four five

One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve
One two three four five

One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve
One two three four five

Red yellow blue green
X-axis y-axis z-axis

One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve
One two three four five

Seventeen breaths
Seventeen minutes
Seventeen compliances

One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve
One two three four five

One two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven twelve
One two three four five

I still get goose-pimples
You still blush

In my senility I lie about my age
Making it greater than it is
The better to be thought magisterial
Names are better than faces at a certain point

Objects seem more real when relayed
Through several sets of television cameras
The monarch unwinds Give a man a mask he says
But who will kennel the hounds of discontent