"Snow / Bell," "Late night radio," and "After Hölderlin"
Snow / Bell
The telephone is
by Michelangelo,
sculpted from the
Carrara marble
that he loved so
much. Is displayed
on a basalt plinth
with a bronze
plaque in the topside
corner that details
its provenance. No-
one else around in
the Uffici when it
rings so I pick it up.
"Hello," I say in
a somewhat hesitant
voice. Silence. Then a
response. "Ma dove sono
le nevi di un tempo?"
Late-night radio
brings out Markov chains
of naked midgets &
gay Mafia rappers, makes
sense of crazy theories. In its
quintessential form, black-
suited men are tempted to
shimmy their ears & official-
looking women to spin
their Lilac Easy Spin Nipple
Tassels (Large) in order to
re-open long lost views
of snow-melt tarns with
shallow margins & gin-clear
water. There’s no real
knowledge or skill here—
just real-world fishing
techniques from the pages
of the world's largest auto-
motive magazine &
evidence on how the true
origins of famous American
words help moisten the skin
when localized in the vicinity
of synaptic junctions of
cultured cortical neurons.
After Hölderlin
Provided they came
in fancy wrapping, the
German intellectual
of the interwar years
could perceive utility
in nerd glasses that
Would Make Anyone
Look Smart. He had a
banjo, & was in the
jewelry business, too.
Mark Young was born in Aotearoa / New Zealand but now lives in a small town in North Queensland in Australia. He is the author of more than sixty books, the most recent of which are with the slow-paced turtle replaced by a fast fish, published by Sandy Press in May, 2023, & a free downloadable chapbook of visuals & poems, Mercator Projected, published by Half Day Moon Press in August 2023. Mark recommends the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society.