bracts
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bracts
gaze enough upon the sea and whales breach.
a monstrance twinkles from the riverbed
of realtime numbers. watch your orchid closely
and you won’t miss the instant of her blooming.
these moments could be simulated--
slowed, multiplied, magnified, saturated,
sold, resequenced, scored, altered, sharpened
and dulled. appetite curdles in recrimination
at the prospect of such surfeiting.
proliferations conjure a too-seedy wattle.
dandelion bracts plucked from the sky
dry to the windowpanes. crimson leaves
outlive their own memories, pressed
unfulfilled between the pages
what trace remains of yesterday’s lowtide footprints?
is now a technical question:
whose property passed overhead
at what resolution contending with which
cloud conditions and how backed up
or accessible? satellites have reached
the moment of stars—plentiful enough
that their naming conforms to coded logic--
narrative retires, expecting little else,
after beating the archetypes to death.
an orca props her chin upon a rock to peer
patiently at a fisherman—then slides home
without splashing. airborne dolphins
at a distance mirror the calligraphy
of mayflies impressed upon the ceiling tiles,
lightly smudged—fixed above the white caps.
there are times when I turn away
from an unruly sea as one might dissociate
near a shopper losing his cool
in some public space.
elsewhere
into a swarm provoked glowers a shade
through whom light tears.
towards the rut an outlier lowers, hoarse
in the dimpled pew for the damp coda of known loss.
a wayward strafer loiters by a crux deriving odds.
one dagger strike, quarterly, suffers the substitute muse--
elsewhered past reckoning.
a warrior wanders unreachable with frayed leads--
weight shedding as anchors, severed to sink in the seabed.
beneath notice the heart’s elastic sags,
found wanting currency. spare tires trade
on a common market, storied with steel belts.
bereft the rift where a beckoning gathered
that wafted off in an infant breeze.
the ungrasped antidote lathers away
leaving cracks to dry. under layers of crashed wave
settles an erratic son, shorn of formal caring.
everything I fed to her fire burned up,
my furnace with it, however precious to me.
ash tithed lovingly to a coddled sapling
torn up when the house is sold.
through a crag where the barricade sinks
in the mud of yesterday’s downpour slides
a creature unconcerned. out of mind and slighted
staggers an aspirant bond, sundered to the quick.
onto the pyre with a pulse, a widow prodded
from living memory—crowds climb toward limelight.
animals catch the whispered rue, process our leveling
with side eyes.
down the river and also ablaze
goes a boat that won’t find her way homeward.
sometimes we find ourselves on a causeway of sorrows
and that is where our feet fall for a while.
stuck
stuck lacks discipline and inventory
to resolve injury, tithes to favored
daydreams, gawks in the observatory.
stuck is a losing hand in someone else’s
story of money—optionlessness dappled
with narrow promises of exceptionalism.
the replay mentality pestles, cudgels,
jackhammers—longing to access
earlier chapters anew. heavy steps
in soggy earth—riptides of an addled mind.
put what’s in the fridge on the table,
put what’s on the table in the face,
clean the area. tremble before avoidable consequence,
see rot where there isn’t, enfold the siege layer,
compete for his sunlight and breathe his air.
moments flood the indices. synonym after synonym
pile atop misspellings sourced from every assumption.
moments masked in idiom, cross-referenced
mercilessly, rut the guidelines, scour the damp ground,
bidding to become rivers, rising to become torrents,
longing to leap back into the sky.
in rapids anything stuck is worn away.
along the seaside anything stuck is worn away.
not so with tungsten trauma conducting nightmare’s
burly grudge. harm feuds, welded sharp upon synapses,
modified to accept unforeseen power sources--
poached moments spackled to partitions
within a fractal coast of bog and briar.
peptides run hot towards a heat death of their own.
fragments validate a time of gathering.
which cycles govern the seeds of this unripe moment?
those times of paddling in place, were they bravery
or blindness?
every bonsai relationship is mutual.
back channels
during a palladium fortnight the repositories
glide over smooth water guided by choice servants
who agree on back channels to avoid one another
in a world we see as mineral crumbs.
screaming issues from a voluntary portal
another cabin cancels all sound
in a third the grunt of shock royalty fucking--
law of the sea, selling point of boats.
the shimmering exaggerate strain,
rechristen normalcy with modern names
and borrowed body art—longing to be pharaohs--
plowing back into the earth their fallow men.
it seems we are best understood as a desiccant
straining for the moisture of others
that we might salt it and mark thereby
the area of our sad happening.
there is a cult of dampening that hovers
in the gulped moment of its own noise
sponsoring towers where avid minds pull
telepathy from apes with a fanfare
of marvelous wire—the precursor
to superimposition—strung from
the universe of having back
into the universe of want.
I have bought several roosters and
paid extra that they be handed to me
oven-ready, enjoying, after,
my neighbor’s deference and the quiet.
moneyed hypothesis
beneath the moneyed hypothesis
of choice gallivanting
the whole corporate experiment trails off
having failed to produce worthy insight.
yachts slick the waters
holding something down at all times.
godlings poach consequentially
now wrapped tightly next billowing.
the soft spoken theory of change:
delight the wealthy serve their ambitions
and they may favor your plans
pending adequate supplication.
imagine their consoles
the fuel in their tanks
their whole dumpster flock of eyeballs.
some find their way to transformation
through such portals.
I don’t know where to allocate significance:
the stretching or the tension
the healing or the heft of daring men.
I chase safety in the midst of leopards
a weapon without a turret
or a turret without a weapon.
gaze enough upon the sea and whales breach.
a monstrance twinkles from the riverbed
of realtime numbers. watch your orchid closely
and you won’t miss the instant of her blooming.
these moments could be simulated--
slowed, multiplied, magnified, saturated,
sold, resequenced, scored, altered, sharpened
and dulled. appetite curdles in recrimination
at the prospect of such surfeiting.
proliferations conjure a too-seedy wattle.
dandelion bracts plucked from the sky
dry to the windowpanes. crimson leaves
outlive their own memories, pressed
unfulfilled between the pages
what trace remains of yesterday’s lowtide footprints?
is now a technical question:
whose property passed overhead
at what resolution contending with which
cloud conditions and how backed up
or accessible? satellites have reached
the moment of stars—plentiful enough
that their naming conforms to coded logic--
narrative retires, expecting little else,
after beating the archetypes to death.
an orca props her chin upon a rock to peer
patiently at a fisherman—then slides home
without splashing. airborne dolphins
at a distance mirror the calligraphy
of mayflies impressed upon the ceiling tiles,
lightly smudged—fixed above the white caps.
there are times when I turn away
from an unruly sea as one might dissociate
near a shopper losing his cool
in some public space.
elsewhere
into a swarm provoked glowers a shade
through whom light tears.
towards the rut an outlier lowers, hoarse
in the dimpled pew for the damp coda of known loss.
a wayward strafer loiters by a crux deriving odds.
one dagger strike, quarterly, suffers the substitute muse--
elsewhered past reckoning.
a warrior wanders unreachable with frayed leads--
weight shedding as anchors, severed to sink in the seabed.
beneath notice the heart’s elastic sags,
found wanting currency. spare tires trade
on a common market, storied with steel belts.
bereft the rift where a beckoning gathered
that wafted off in an infant breeze.
the ungrasped antidote lathers away
leaving cracks to dry. under layers of crashed wave
settles an erratic son, shorn of formal caring.
everything I fed to her fire burned up,
my furnace with it, however precious to me.
ash tithed lovingly to a coddled sapling
torn up when the house is sold.
through a crag where the barricade sinks
in the mud of yesterday’s downpour slides
a creature unconcerned. out of mind and slighted
staggers an aspirant bond, sundered to the quick.
onto the pyre with a pulse, a widow prodded
from living memory—crowds climb toward limelight.
animals catch the whispered rue, process our leveling
with side eyes.
down the river and also ablaze
goes a boat that won’t find her way homeward.
sometimes we find ourselves on a causeway of sorrows
and that is where our feet fall for a while.
stuck
stuck lacks discipline and inventory
to resolve injury, tithes to favored
daydreams, gawks in the observatory.
stuck is a losing hand in someone else’s
story of money—optionlessness dappled
with narrow promises of exceptionalism.
the replay mentality pestles, cudgels,
jackhammers—longing to access
earlier chapters anew. heavy steps
in soggy earth—riptides of an addled mind.
put what’s in the fridge on the table,
put what’s on the table in the face,
clean the area. tremble before avoidable consequence,
see rot where there isn’t, enfold the siege layer,
compete for his sunlight and breathe his air.
moments flood the indices. synonym after synonym
pile atop misspellings sourced from every assumption.
moments masked in idiom, cross-referenced
mercilessly, rut the guidelines, scour the damp ground,
bidding to become rivers, rising to become torrents,
longing to leap back into the sky.
in rapids anything stuck is worn away.
along the seaside anything stuck is worn away.
not so with tungsten trauma conducting nightmare’s
burly grudge. harm feuds, welded sharp upon synapses,
modified to accept unforeseen power sources--
poached moments spackled to partitions
within a fractal coast of bog and briar.
peptides run hot towards a heat death of their own.
fragments validate a time of gathering.
which cycles govern the seeds of this unripe moment?
those times of paddling in place, were they bravery
or blindness?
every bonsai relationship is mutual.
back channels
during a palladium fortnight the repositories
glide over smooth water guided by choice servants
who agree on back channels to avoid one another
in a world we see as mineral crumbs.
screaming issues from a voluntary portal
another cabin cancels all sound
in a third the grunt of shock royalty fucking--
law of the sea, selling point of boats.
the shimmering exaggerate strain,
rechristen normalcy with modern names
and borrowed body art—longing to be pharaohs--
plowing back into the earth their fallow men.
it seems we are best understood as a desiccant
straining for the moisture of others
that we might salt it and mark thereby
the area of our sad happening.
there is a cult of dampening that hovers
in the gulped moment of its own noise
sponsoring towers where avid minds pull
telepathy from apes with a fanfare
of marvelous wire—the precursor
to superimposition—strung from
the universe of having back
into the universe of want.
I have bought several roosters and
paid extra that they be handed to me
oven-ready, enjoying, after,
my neighbor’s deference and the quiet.
moneyed hypothesis
beneath the moneyed hypothesis
of choice gallivanting
the whole corporate experiment trails off
having failed to produce worthy insight.
yachts slick the waters
holding something down at all times.
godlings poach consequentially
now wrapped tightly next billowing.
the soft spoken theory of change:
delight the wealthy serve their ambitions
and they may favor your plans
pending adequate supplication.
imagine their consoles
the fuel in their tanks
their whole dumpster flock of eyeballs.
some find their way to transformation
through such portals.
I don’t know where to allocate significance:
the stretching or the tension
the healing or the heft of daring men.
I chase safety in the midst of leopards
a weapon without a turret
or a turret without a weapon.
Nathaniel Calhoun works and writes from the sub-tropical Far North of Aotearoa New Zealand. His projects help to protect biodiversity and improve governance processes within organizations or communities. You can find him on twitter @calhounpoems