Tuesday, April 24, 2012

SHARP TWICE OR ONCE

Sharp once in a moon that has been lost haven't kept track of the what was it once in a moon that has been lost and drifted away lost in thought is that what it is was once in a moon inside the moon drifting away haven't kept track of the streets the names the street names behind the building behind the clouds fogging up the mirror tapping pruney fingers that once twice or once held a pen clicking still in the inner part of the ears between half a mind to think it through out the other side of the moon in a moon once in a moon that has been lost and drifted away lost in thought is that what it is once in a moon inside the moon drifting away haven't kept track of the streets the names the street names behind the building behind the clouds fogging up the mirror tapping pruney fingers that once twice or once held a pen clicking still in the inner part of the ears between half a mind to think it through out the other side of the moon falling into blackness the only thing that still holds like the black ink on finger tips pruney fingertips tipping over back into the darkness falling into shells for filling them in with paper and desks and machines loaded with darkness falling into shells for filling them in with paper and desks and machines loaded and unloaded shells filled and emptied dumping out paper and desks and machines crashing out crashing down onto floors of shells filling them in with paper and desks and machines loaded with darkness falling into shells for filling them in with paper and desks and machines exchanging plus one other opinion exchanging machines and desks and paper within them filling in emptying out shells into falling darkness.


"Put it away."
"But I."
"Turning off the light."
"One more page."
"Tomorrow."
"You'll turn the light off again tomorrow."


Shells into falling darkness.  It gets dark.  Stuffed shells emptied shells.  It gets dark.  Falling crashing crunching crunching numbers.  It gets dark.  Paper and desks and machines and labels and lines and numbers and letters and numbers mostly.  Hurts sitting on this hard chair after removing the dirty ripped and uneven cushion from the hard chair after after and now there's not much else to say but but what? oh there's the hard chair after never mind the after there is no after no more after so let's have an end until something else inside the moon shaken about between these sweating ears dripping the perspiration of jokes coming back right back at the chin lost the wood the brick and all the adhesives of identity now there's an explosion to take a load off a load out of the spinning rotating metal can coughing up all the dirty crummy laundry leave it there for them to walk on trip over perhaps stomp and stamp to mix in their swollen footprints their advances impressed into the dirty crummy laundry paving over the pores of the globe occluding them into another blemish on the rough surface of their order.  It gets dark.


"Hurts."
"Did you say something?"
"Hurts."
"What hurts?"
"Inside before the top of the chest under the bottom of the neck."
"Where's your water?"
"I think it spilled into the bed."
"I've told you to make sure to seal it good and tight when you're done with it."
"I guess I wasn't done with it."


It gets dark.


"It doesn't feel wet."
"You're lucky this time."
"It feels different."
"It feels dry."


Dirty crummy laundry paving over the pores of the globe occluding them into another blemish on the rough surface of their order.  


"I said it feels different."
"Different than dry?"
"Different than wet.  Like the inside of a body."


Hurts sitting on this hard chair after removing the dirty ripped and uneven cushion from the hard chair after after and now there's not much else to say but but what? oh there's the hard chair after never mind the after there is no after no more after so let's have an end until something else inside the moon shaken about between these sweating ears dripping the perspiration of jokes coming back right back at the chin lost the wood the brick and all the adhesives of identity now there's an explosion to take a load off a load out of the spinning rotating metal can coughing up all the dirty crummy laundry leave it there for them to walk on trip over perhaps stomp and stamp to mix in their swollen footprints their advances impressed into the dirty crummy laundry paving over the pores of the globe occluding them into another blemish on the rough surface of their order.  It gets dark.


It gets dark.  Inside a shell emptied and stuffed with paper and desks and machines falling and crashing and crunching crunching numbers.  Numbers can run paper and desks and machines into the ground or a star into a planet.  


"Did you say something?"


Sharp once when it came to directions when it came to rules when it came to this.  When it came to the anecdote regarding the young lady wrinkling at the computer as her stale toast as her life and its crumbs made their way down her legs as she sat on the hard chair wobbling on loose screws that hold her legs under her sagging nods into brief sleep interrupted by unsteadiness trying again to hum when lips before they had been re-absorbed into her brittle head buzzed wax paper on father's comb against the window as a fat bee hovered and suddenly collided into the glass sending her back go back back to the silence the silence of scribbling scribbling outlines of spiders gawking through furry legs at the bloated less than half full glass elephant in the middle of the room slightly to quite off center.  Sharp once when it came to directions when it came to rules when it came to this.


Sharp once in a moon that has been lost haven't kept track of the what was it once in a moon that has been lost and drifted away lost in thought is that what it is was once in a moon inside the moon drifting away haven't kept track of the streets the names the street names behind the building behind the clouds fogging up the mirror tapping pruney fingers that once twice or once held a pen clicking still in the inner part of the ears between half a mind to think it through out the other side of the moon.  Hurts sitting on this hard chair after removing the dirty ripped and uneven cushion from the hard chair after after and now there's not much else to say but but what? oh there's the hard chair after never mind the after there is no after no more after.




- Max Stoltenberg

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