Semantic Ballad #2

by Professor Jorge Guitart

There's a message from the cynic

whom destiny left in the dust.

He will meet us at the clinic

to show us the power of rust.

He tried to borrow le mot juste

and it exploded in his face.

But the disciplined tribe

got wanderlust

and no one was on their case.

Me, I'll tell you in the morning

what the evening locust said

but not who was scorning

the accordionist who chose to fade.

Now Freud moves away from the table.

I'd say it's a pretty sight.

He's told me he's been quite able

to act consistently out of spite.

Friends, I ran into a wall

that was receptive to my touches.

It told me, “I want it all

but a lot escapes my clutches.”

And now I look at the spire

that has no private parts.

A man with an air of desire

engages in false starts.

But don't let me spoil the fun.

Don't sub-let your nice cabanna.

We'll bring the beggar to the nun

crisscrossing the enormous savanna.

On Dying in the Sea

by Mary Sarsfield

In the waves surrounding your

Ancient skin and

Life-worn bones you were released.

Your being was suddenly lifted, uncontrollably weightless

And your eyelids became single sheathes of skin.

The dam of your throat broke under the pressure

The water rushed into your small pink lungs

So quickly.

You mistook salt water for embryonic fluid

a return to that darkness from which we have all sprung forth.

The wailing was silenced and all was still. A flower de-blooming

Creeping back into soft damp soil.

Ode to a Housecat’s Day

by Charles Wiff

Oh, hark the Felis silvestris catus,

Wisest of all creatures.

You live as the gods once did,

Your day delicate as a flower,

Unique like a snowflake:

Ascend stairs, stop—

Lick asshole,

Sleep 12 hours,

Descend stairs.

Now I know why I feed you.

2

by Monika Ostrowski

i feel like land

note well---

don’t touch him because

his feet won’t touch the ground.

i like to wonder

what that would be like?

Fearing his feet again

even with my fingers.

I survey

the lay of the land

insatiable, my territorial needs are like rib- bons.

how heavy is

everyone says?!

human NEED is insatiable.

everyone SAYS is unable.

even in uttering nothing

separating isn’t separating it is

unitary because you are engaging.

i will separate myself saying everything

indentifying with dissenters

who are dissatisfied with me.

i want someone at this table with me

the pages have a drip from my tea.

do you want some dinner, some something.

its just out of politeness

i am being a good PERSON by asking.

The Saga That Petered Out

by Professor Jorge Guitart

By the tall catalpa tree

standing in monstrous detail

was young Priyanka Bannerjee

wearing a neutron veil.

I think I might have to forget

why she wanted to invert polarity

when quantum was her pet

before the end of parity.

When she filled me with the fear

that strings would be too bare

I cried, I am outa here!

and went back to my lair.

I respond to no one

because no one is here

They all have left for San Juan

and I've drunk my last tear.

Aikou

by Marina Blitshteyn

A thing extended itself laterally

boomed out from under us the way

aerial shots of atomic bombs show an expand-

ing disc

and then the mushroom flowers.

But we didn’t know what it was, you know,

the skipping record.

They have a name for that sort of circumfer- ence.

It smells like sharp spring when it hits,

then it hits the eyes hard,

there we became

victims of sweet sleep and waking insomnia;

so it infected us.

do they have a cure for this thing,

I asked a friend once, ready to

rip out the guts of whatever emanated from the

pit of my stomach

and that spherical center in the middle of my

diaphragm.

death, they responded.

even still,

they say your hair and nails keep growing after

your skin mingles with the dark earth and

your eyes cave in.

I bet it’s like that here, between the two of us,

or one of us, or it’s just me.

There is a rosy spike when the blood sets in,

with or without it.

Stunned like a statue I call it by name.