The truck slows
glowing faithful leaps—
a window yellows
draping a breast
a tinny radio
Why hardened
Why heat
Suddenly margarine
my onion rose
O most difficult!
the foliage scaled back
Old girlfriends
Old pants
Squirmy spells, expectations
When silenced dirt conk
violates novel dreams
consecutive shadowy girl sparkling
sacred denunciation/
reinterpreted cranks, green seizures
suggested white forces,
grinning
begins
emaciate
tits
2.
Hanging from branches
close to the sidewalk, silver spots
suspended drops
"A Thousand Points of Light"
President Bush, the inaugural evasive shine,
seriously mouth
(There are ropes about my ankles & arms)
A broken heart is an occupational hazard
"A Window of Vulnerability"
embarrassing that she's finally 18
that she's microscopic
juridical & parsimonious
The slender green plate skulls
like Winston Churchill
initial splotches of mink
"Can I help you, Sir?"
McDonald's as potlatch
dad offering up daughter
to the chieftains of industry—
She's speaking in tongues
(Belgium is squeezed
from the teasing hair)
Under pressure, everyone
becomes a politician
My marbled cake
a synthetic chocolate
whistle stop
that truth accrues from
(one station to the next)
how one pretends—
Such a cute smile!
that flat tires pollinating this stance too
that marriage is incumbent upon
disastrous fat
Afghanistan become
a living room
What nice mountains!
Sincerely, your Daphne
3.
O Hills O Soul O Anything
It feels like my brain's broke
whirling in place, all that fury & sweat
targets everywhere
Not "I want" but the pain
situations which I cannot change,
when all about me things sing like butter
I'm frying alive
spread out in some fundamental oil
so blocked & blackened
the Maniacal Dislocations:
this man is your wife
the bombing begins in 5 minutes
I guess the President refuses to think
because of his hard-on
Hit the deck, kids
This is an invasion
Nevertheless, "orange" includes
certain parameters, like airplane
how we understand agency
gun & Viet Nam
Whereas "sun" can host Aztec sacrifices
growth, God, the swastika
& sight itself
So that "orange sun" & "sunny orange"
become real estate, yachts
perception as property
Have we gotten to the punchline?
4.
Sordid brown pocketbook
undignified sorceress
3 children at hand
ordering burgers
What does that image conjure?
McDonald's square cheese
melting yellow sunrise over fried meat
white buns flipped
greasy potatoes
(Outside, the elms spread their tender, jagged leaves
brown spots invade, & the zeroes
creep in, Dutch Elm's Disease)
But why sordid always
Why distinguish her features,
her magic from my own failure
of which she is pure
evocation?
5.
Orthodox rectangular fish tank
bubbling green seaweed
gold fishes
Shiny car, smile, & gun
empty ribcage
The equations engender
declarations of love/
loyal red, white & blue
My territory right & wrong
"I don't want another dog
I want DILTHEY!"
A smell of pepsodent
gasoline
there's a war on TV
& it's measured by degrees
by popularity
by fire power
you keep flipping channels
slobbery chin
squeezing it all in
a kind of hostage
They're at the fifty yard line
think big, Daisy
think industry, bombs
O Minute Man, O Guided Missile!
Dear Mom, your shiny moons
like breasts
greased piston, Ford's
chomping green maniac
fits photostatic, serene whence
says St. Augustine
the womb as cantankerous
iodine. Begin again
the strangulating
inconsequential design:
War is not an accident
Getting the choked motor clear
cramped green seizures
infiltrate campaign sneezes
unilateral progressions become
Wonder Bread
a metaphoric disease
spread like margarine does
spread like Asian germs
spread like Kali:
Wide open for heroes
Dearest Henry
a deathless stamp
become reason
plant please plantation place
take factory fake
(orange fin like a handshake
hand shark
a pretense of color)
6.
Welcome to the Assembly Line
the Principles of Scientific Management
As your textbook states
the Industrial Revolution
keep your hands off, kids
this is a Machine
Wheels invisibly propelled
by labor, resource,
& capital, which cuts
a Golden Triangle
much like on a dollar bill
That means getting dressed on time
standing in rows
saying Yes Sir
bombing in sequence
In God We Trust
Bruce Holsapple works as a Speech-Language Pathologist in Magdalena, New Mexico. He's published six books of poetry to date. His most recent book is Vanishing Act (La Alameda 2010).
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