Breathnexus

Spring 2020

we have many countries
                        but you don't need it
we are different now               
                        a combination of security and rediscovery
             different forms of products
                                     the target group
we perform is
            everything exists when they are very honest
we will complete the test
                                    it can even replace the work
we do for ventilators
             that people can't even believe.

 
germ gentrification
                        moves in hard,
black air for black lungs,
black water for black thirst
black plague for black neighborhoods
                        while denial is riverrunning
through the town's whiteside
 
election job limits number of protests
            storming Sisyphus crazy downward   flattening all curves
dying no matter what the herd
                        the oracle died at a point in China
the hoard over time concept in the world
                                    honored, not crazy
 
government obscenity
            the country heroism of pharmacists
terror of altruistic
citing asian colds
the "misquoted" mosquito on the platform
 
this is a very unfair question
many outstanding professionals          respect some of them.
 
you are on the other side         with many people
many people    say the same thing and are confident
many people                do not get it right.
 
I was lucky      either because of luck
or         because we closed the border
                                                            with exception,
            we are denied china
                                                we have our

american god
                        you need  to be done.
but we banned china               which was very lucky.
socialist dancing          in the streets of chinatown
 
Reopen Pandora's Economy-Sized Box!
                        reopen the hair salons
but the border, STFU. 
            casino cats dig nil

 
As they print
his tense asides,
the President's
dense presence
dents the press's
sense of pride.
 
hold your distance, rare old-fashioned examination yodeler, constitutionally heretical lies only rate one quote: unbelievable iniquity never ends.
 
                                    a red pill
you don't just take
                        you live inside its bubble
until your heart expires
 
remdesivir:  its shiny armor
            spiky resources pooling
                        intractible respirator reservoir
reserving to itself
            its only mutated arrival
so far   so near
                        to the heartbeat of capital
the pumping blood of the serfs
                                                the waveride to the lungs
riptide of phlegm
 
            america's f stop
                                                absent prophylactic prep
 
                        the population's           viral aperture
widens                         with economy
 
epidemic saturation
            compels immuno-marksmanship
at its game's peak.

 

 

 

Steve Carll

Steve Carll lives with his family in Arcata, California.  His books include Tracheal Centrifuge (Factory School, 2006), Tao Drops, I Change (with Bill Marsh, Subpress, 2004), Trace a Moment's Closure For Clues (Logodaedalus, 1996), and Sincerity Loops (Bathysphere, 1995).  His work has recently appeared in Otoliths, WCP Magazine and SurVision.  From 1988-1998, he edited the literary journal Antenym.  Performance video of most of his poetry from 1991 to the present can be found at https://www.youtube.com/@stevecarll/videos.  Steve recommends the Arcata House Partnership.

 

Edited for Unlikely by Jonathan Penton, Editor-in-Chief
Last revised on Wednesday, January 3, 2024 - 21:40