Gothic Peoples Institute
And were you cold last night
And in dreams somewhat amphibian.
Is she sometimes a coldfront. What do the gestures mean
If they aren’t the same as other gestures.
What when their hands have gotten past each other.
Has this one started a hiccup. Has he ridden a four-wheeler.
Or, were the apples imported maybe. Did the leaves change more
Or again. And was the creek turned by hoofprints.
If this was an inside what would it look like.
If they rubbed here would they prize vision so much.
If not, where to swim to. Where to go round again.
How to paddle there. Is it a bog. What do you suggest.
What if you washed up. What if she aged years in seconds.
What makes him cringe then. What causes laughing fits
And have you practiced. And were they mountains. Is that Monadnock
And Seven Sisters there. Did the preparation mature them well.
Were they worn. Were they pants. What found he was fossilized.
Did it wrinkle him. Did the things he said resemble sculpted stone.
What about a woodcut. How about an airplane
With a lawnmower on its wing. How about that.
If a thing is loved enough, does it equally experience time lapse.
And when does love get lied to. When appropriate for singing about.
Does it build in the manner you accumulate. Is it held by vacancy
And noticeably troubled by them. Would they prefer another choice.
Which would she on a nametag. What about a tar patch.
Which keeps one later. Which more easily taken for confidence
Which for anarchy. What about an uppermost part.
What about on a roadtrip. What, for the sake of confusion.
And do our feet turn in the shape of hallelujah.
Do the prayers travel well. Are they like fruitcake
In any case, how do they meander. Or is it we’d better fling them.
Are those insightful to hear about or just kind of some private thoughts.
Like noodles then. Discernable in darkness. How hokey do we become.
And how many do we commemorate. Did she bring-it-on then.
And those by circumlocution then. Or, gathered otherwise.
Can you draw it. Can he drive it. Was it seen like our own hand.
And how was the ceremony. Did society-folk attend.
Did moons rise in storefronts. Were they a club
With membership dwindling. Could any of them be danced to.
Would it describe as seasonal. Would it present standardly.
Were they a bird’s nest. Was it a church-on-wheels.
March with Wounded Hound
In the circle I made the dog move
made pear trees move
And this was good to me if it was
If a piling-on if a pear tree
If all else well spring to you
A ritual walk then a spring ritual
a circle to anybody
and a tail to you and a dog
Wisteria and twila and an airplane
Then an airplane then a palm frond
a walk shape
My ritual was azaleas bloomed
crocus bloomed
Good Tuesday and all to anybody
Or more than anything something pear
made of dog then of scenery
Widespread, Plausible
We call it Total Animation.
We who are tracking an owl just now
and are kneedeep and speaking
of a thing to know of poplar trees
and of the pebble of trees.
And who do this of our overflowance
and despite misgiving, and whatever discomfort,
and whatever abrasion.
And we never see it. And are only about to—
held where a thing that never happens
hasn’t yet. And whatever our making
our heads are as if leaves burst from them in a day
and better than that.
In a Meadow on a Beam
at the end we would begin again
because there are instances wherein a notch
is a wide-mile and a best-self
and could run-on-over or be folded in a backseat
then covered in tied flies
and later be a bowl but be for you
who resemble a spot of sun and also a motion
whose motion is over-there
like to the victor go the things we jinx by talking about
and then they happen anyway
out where we pushed all the weeds down
and where the weather approaches aesthetic necessity
and our reason with no holes
floats seven feet down the creek
That’s when our great speckled reveals itself
and comes full-on in a ghost-step