Steven Karl

Poem Written After Reading Schuyler

everything was coming

as I was going

yet residue rinsed

ripe upon rock

tide clock sand

shift carcass our

bodies become bodiless

green felt becoming

tree stains spreading

lungs lunging notes

a life admittance

of lows &

lusts listen snow

not silent but

an elastic mind

misting mysterious music

bass falsetto bell

belling together littlest

of weather dawn

purple/grey careless

voices gauzing guitars

then acoustic leaves

tired branches the

dominant chords becoming

ambient spaces after

footfall feeling winter

sun the walk

where neither I

nor you did

talk but still

to move thru

space side by

side to remain

a memory for

at least one

is enough to

unthread yellow thread

hanging from sweater

once snowflakes so

large your foot

went splash in

puddle big enough

to require paddle

sneakers out of

season green streaks 

upon brown dirt

what happened last

the beach or

this city gulls

misting a distance

a mind place

undecipherable how it

is when muscle

memory triggers careless

this voice not

ours— color spilling

drum bass pushing

the mid-tempo field

meandering nightscape one

beverage then another

into purpled-grey dawn

light steady subsided

of internal drum

thing this machine

of body blood

movement thick bass

false bells barking

help my head

this head must

be going empty

ruin ruining ruined

later burst &

how we &

later how we—

sand worms its

way into everything

even knee backs

sun-burnt summer

how fast the

mind moves from

one territory of

light like another

of shadow &

etchings erasures &

back into the

sunpainted again with

you again into

the no poppies

season defunct hours

colorless ice drippings

snowdrops first song

snow blurring minor

pictures becoming menace

muzak background mimicking

lives amount to

together littlest of

weather abstractions are

patterns silence wind

devour skyscrapers between

city parks sometimes

something seems off

still how many

nights of nonsense

I & you

shoulder knocking shoulder

later under sheets

snow drifting down

in sheets the silence

your snow &

show & your

in & out

breath how many

nights away missed

better with unheard

ears as an

elastic mind where

everything stretches nothing

sticks of humanity

I loved it

all but mostly

just you—

an encore starless

& dim &

listen it’s about

to begin again

Let the Ghosts Good & Malicious Move Through

for Matt Henriksen

a memory/ of a movie where a man/ has a secret a secret about/ so this man towards/ the end of his cinematic/ narrative that is/ towards the end of/ the film tinged in/ mostly seeping colors of/ greens & reds & rain/ raining on food stands &/ dirty concrete buildings/ so here he is on/ an island &/ he finds a/ tree with a/ hole &/ the tree/ is sacred &/ the sky/ is sacred &/ the hole is/ sacred or those are/ things for another poem/ the tree was just a tree/but the tree was/ also opportunity so/ into the hole he/ whispered his secret/ into the hole he/ relieved himself of/ his secret— a seedling/ to grow or die/ of its own/ volition so he/ sealed the hole &/ steps off screen/

off screen the tree lives/ for a long time off screen/ the tree lives/ for a long time &/ then the land is/ deemed better repurposed/ for condos for hotels/ for skyscrapers the tree is/ chopped the tree is/ destroyed the tree is/ the secret &/ the secret has become/ the tree only now/ the tree has been/ repurposed into/ paper &/ the secret spreads across/ so many sheets &/ as I type this my/ secrets & his secrets become/ the world’s secrets they/ become their own/ field of flowers they/ become their own/ bright stars each letter/ studded across page/ feel the imprint of/ letters feel their faint/ burn feel my desperation/ to romanticize the histories/ of our failures in/ an azure sky of possibilities/ some secrets birthed/ monsters some secrets birthed/ pain some secrets became land’s lacerations—

from Because the Terror

*

because our parents were the terror because the president is the terror because

citizens are not citizens because we the terror we the promise of fear of its

engaging approach because the blood welcoming the subject in its experimental form

because our parents were the terror because the president is the terror because

citizens are not citizens because we the terror because the lived life of abstractions

because reckoning felt like mantra because terror gave them—

we the promise of fear of its engaging approach because the blood welcoming

because the sun blazed azalea fits of excitement the welcome of blood the age of

terror because we wanted the terror to stop because we—

*

the subject in its experimental form because on bended knee I confess to the yellow

cardinal— a rarity to the mind’s imagination because I confess to the dying elms—

a disease blown in from some far away country because on bended knee I confess

because on bended knee I confess to the yellow cardinal—to the foxgloves & field

of spreading bluets because I confess to having complicated feelings— a slow terror

on the precipice of a steep incline but on bended knee

what is it to confess—

to the foxgloves & field of spreading bluets what is it to confess to look the terror

to acknowledge error to beg for forgiveness while the forest burns while rivers

continue to contaminate while kids petition & protest against pollution

what is it to confess to look the terror to acknowledge error what is it to confess & the leave

the body nearly lifeless to beg for some holy lifeforce to resurrect a dying planet full of citizens groomed

in terror raised in violence rife with disease & fear

*

because our parents were the terror because the president is the terror because citizens are not citizens

because we the terror University Alert! Campus Alert: A dangerous situation is occurring on or near campus!

Evacuate the area NOW! possible gunshots on campus

because citizens are not citizens because we the terror terrorize with death’s glare & malice &

bully with guns guns all day we bully brave we cower we tremble we run we evacuate

we attempt to save ourselves from ourselves not ourselves is/is not mirror fracture HELP

we the promise of fear of its engaging approach because the blood welcoming utter terror to confess

I did not want to live but I did want to survive university alert dangerous situation to confess to the

terror of each other to run from each other the president the terror the congress the terror the NRA

the subject in its experimental form because on bended knee I confess to the oblivious robin in

the tree the terror of police sirens the brute display of violence the muscle of death erotic rush of

power I confess I am celibate I lust not your anger your malice your affair of the cemetery

because on bended knee I confess to the yellow cardinal—let me survive all alerts of imminent doom

because after the all-clear I could not calm down because I could not quell the tremble because even at

home because at home the email welcomed the terror because the taste of terror is terrible I rinse my

mouth in the metallic aftertaste the terror continues

*

 because this was a typical day a typical response the utterance of normal in the sudden sun

sloven slattern light on bended knee I mourned for the days I wanted to die days when it felt

I could not rise hidden in the darkness hatred’s violence

the verb resume because I could not resume normalcy because I was haunted by a noose my

friend tried to hang from because I was haunted by the girl who threw herself in front of

the train because the terror was everywhere all-consuming invading daymares sweating pores

the verb resume because I could not resume normalcy because I was haunted by a story told

by either Elizabeth or Juliana about a former apartment in Tokyo that had an interior garden

that each apartment overlooked & to look down & see a body thrown from above

because I was haunted by a story of someone’s suicide & how the narrative alone broke our hearts &

how the societal burden weights some of else to the point where the terror is relentless where the

bodies keep killing themselves & ourselves & each terror feels infinite in its heavy sadness

how the narrative alone broke because this is normalcy this is what I reject because there was no

suspect other than ourselves our culture of terror power’s quest for tyranny empty rhetoric on a sunny

day while poison gas seeps into air icebergs melt animals mourning their extinction

because I suspect we rush to forget our role in all this constant death we rush to forget the terror we

bring to all living things we rush to forget how we destroy all around us including ourselves we rush

to forget that each footstep is a crushing blow to a blade of grass a rip in empathy’s armor as if

as if enough people ever wanted empathy’s armor anyway I confess most care not devil or god a name

is just a stupid name give me the intoxication of power pure & plain enough of this poetry sloven

sun terrible terror light breaking thru branches

empathy’s armor anyway is yesterday’s band name today is destroyer of the world today is the

reign in terror that was the 80s that is still today high alert return to normalcy is to return to suspicious

activity to high alert to flee the campus flee the earth the flames the flames the terror of everything

Terror Face

be        yo        oc        th

ca         u          ca         e

us         c          si         po

 e          a         on         em

 a          n        al        i

t         no       l         s

a       lo        o      a

ce     ng      v     v

rt     er      e     i

ai    lo      on  o

n   ve       e     l

a   a       l      e

g  n     i      n

e     ab  v  c

i     us     e   e

mi  er       s

ss    b       in

my   e     me

mo   c   mo

th    a  ry

er   u   be

b   s   ca

u  e  us

t    it  e

be  s   i

ca   co   s

us   mp   a

e     li        y

a     ca     i

t     te     ch

a     d     oo

ce   be   se

rt     ca     lo

ai       us    ve

n        e    bu

ag     th   t

e      er   t

th      e  h

ey     wa e

sa       s  n

y

Terror Face

   b       o                      b          t

   e     n                           e         h

c          e                      c         e

  a      l                       a                p

   u  i                     u                o

  s   v                       s          e

e   e                           e   m

  t    s                     i        i

    h i                  s          s

       e n           a                a

     r      t     y                      v

  e          h   i                  i

    w       a   c            o

      a    t     h        l

        s    m o        e

     t          e   o    n

  h               m s  c

e              o       e e

 o         r         l

   c    y           o

                      v

      c               e

        a          b

      s        u

      i      t

     o       t

       n    h

    a     e

  l     n

l

 o

  v

   e

Terror Face

s                       h                      u          h

c                    i                         n          o

r                  s                           i           w

i                t                              v          t

p               o                             e          o

t                  r                            r         p

e                    y                         s      u

d                 t                            a    l

e              h                              l    l     

x           r                               p        s

p         o                               a           h

e       w                               r                 e  

c     s                                t              f

t     i                               i             r

a    t                            c             o

t    s                           i            m

i    e                         p            m

o  m                       a              y

n   p                     t                r

s    t                   i                  i

o    y               o                   a

f   o              n                     d

t  u             i                        s

h t              n                    o

e  t           l                    f

m h       a                  h

o   e     n                e

m   w     g

e      i       u

n       n        a

t           d        g

          o              e

        w