poem (collaboration)

magazine assignment: address on a human hair
horse accuses tourist with a luminous destination

gorgeous legs turn heads on bye bye bonzo
faucet filled with trampoline glue leaks freely

cocoa skull fliers invite recipients to dance
cat sprawls on the drawing table: backyard soaked in fog

entrusted with the severity of the moment
she checked her burps, he watched his fly

remove book jacket before I prepare the spine
"nobody is despised who can manage a crocodile"

still, he peddled influenza while wearing white hats
under the peppermint hangs an ornamental acorn

stranded on surgical insects
lavender on skin doused with bird virus

we swerve to avoid clichés but
get bombed under a palm tree

detergent spills during rehearsal
map folds to salmon splayed in pulp

why did it take those people so long
to know their holes were full of hearts?

crowded apartment authentic with dengue fever
Thai sisters receive prizes in clarinet

wrestling to pull the metallic ego asunder
their stroll in the park presages superheat

replace lavender with swimmers sleep, legs
curled against my skin submerged in anonymous vertebrates

there was never a reason for the blue-painted horse
to fly through their wavering concepts of reason

children tumble over their cocoa skulls
umbrella begins with fabric stretched over contestants

they derail their dysfunctioning faces
and place wet masks on the pavement

aquarium notebook: Chinese in braille
bones illuminate in blue at random intervals

save 30% off, time's almost running out
weather one’s be kicking ass, all's not lost

stairs snag: "phobias interfere with the investigation"
insisting coffee beverage, Pablo grabs a wrapped girl

govt officials in unison pull off nylon skin
revealing severely alien skeletal structures

swans separate in cold weather
ventriloquist connected by seven pauses

grunts: "it's okay if you can't catch the ball"
she screams back, "who has hands anymore?"

to found, heights or next turn on plank
thorns cramped in nest assigns a peculiar promise

while denying the erotic as frivolously murky
they brush their nipples against the storm

door closes, someone is home
"his wife writes me sad letters, asking for detail"

unlike the cushion at the hanging nail's edge
the trout she let go kept biting her thoughts

it's four street back in popular beverage
fabric contestant closest to clothing supports spine

"eliminate household odors"
by smelling worse than the house

cumbias quickly accumulate in an hour
anonymous as spectators participate in the mirror

left over strange brewers pour out their necks
reminding sailor ghosts of life below pink waves

an hour depends is incomplete
themselves, especially as they occur will be negligible

"there's less future in the future"
closed eyes find no havoc on earth

public coffee cut on canvas
attentive in apricot knots, deliberate visual equivalents

dyslectic girl breaks windows and syntax
helicopters hover over cannibal monks

children paste souvenirs to their favorite minutes
daughter with tattoo on spine specializes in audience

acrobatic coughs slip between a hospital net
all in her nightmare induced by purple poison

for example, entry 20 in the catalogue:
museum entrance emphasize horizontal receipts for pedestrians

his second chance is to make the same mistake twice
her third trance is to keep bricks flying at the sun

partial breaks in particular, undivided
trout ligaments on scar intrigues dermatologist

who reiterates in a thick accent of unknown origin
"we really gotta get outta this pink elephant place"

afternoon stains familiar for another hour
fabricate canvas with nearby fields in august

suspension of racial disbelief hits 18th-century Mexico
mixed-blood castes: coyote, wolf, and "Hold Yourself in Midair"

envelope, canteen, scaffolding leaves a flat surface
crow furniture implies vague apartments in pencil

too much garlic before the film and no friends
after the show no theater no sky no world

depicting an aisle, nitrate pierced in tongue?
"we sit close to the screen to receive the first image"

Yoko in downtown Paris under a banana tree sighs
spaghetti and spinach swirling as if anti-cancerous

nipples disperse in fragments
remove blouse as similarities trace victims

ate so much garlic and ran
from own mouth, but how?

skin drenched in Radio Jaipur
alternative to Buddhist predecessor procures realism

teenage senility ruins their holiday
horrible pop poured on campfire embers


July, 2004

Ray Craig and John Solt