The Brooklyn Rail

APR 2018

All Issues
APR 2018 Issue
Poetry

from ROSWELL/GREENCREST

 

 

Roswell Park Cancer Institute

Buffalo, New York

4/16/17

Easter Sunday

 

I.

 

i am the wrong dream for this

dispensary.

 

in the doctor’s scrawled

rx i the misinterpretation

of a spike of ink present

my bodied might

desperate to harmonize.

 

the cut bowel

the made-up night

a bed of tasks.

 

swollen limbs.

 

heads

[daffodils & tulips in the stone pot]

turn as i go by.

 

 

II.

 

it has to go through night

to get to the holiday

of release.

 

the body’s night is

strange with quiets

& with breath.

 

grains of secret

time passing, pain

like flags that flap

in dream. red

pop.

 

if there is a night

it is longer than a

vein

 

shiftless as mercury

on a pale translucent

dish.

 

 

V.

 

we heard the sun break

through the window &

we were OK

 

our floors made

timing

made aluminum

sparks

 

wheel-shine positing

theories

 

how the city

closes at easter

that life-bread

becomes scarce

 

things need

planning

 

so much sun

 

our deeds in surrogate

hands

 

don’t wake us up

 

 

VI.

 

a river

placed between

the ribs

 

vivid dreams

 

parties boaters

on the reservoir

of the belly

 

a mass of aggressive

carolers

the body’s

fear of invasion

 

so many ways

to dream of violation

in a cut flesh earth

 

VII.

 

the lake is a flexed muscle

sheathed in cloud.

the city twitches its

indecisive pelt.

our seven stories

change with each telling

—the doors

on the elevator.

 

what we take in

what we bring

hidden beneath our

coats

to our days

 

contraband unknown

as the future

as tomorrow’s needs.

 

Contributor

Jay Besemer

Jay Besemer is a poet, performer, artist and editor whose books and chapbooks include Crybaby City (Spuyten Duyvil), Telephone, Chelate (both Brooklyn Arts Press), A New Territory Sought (Moria), Aster to Daylily (Damask Press) and Object with Man’s Face (Rain Taxi Ohm Editions). He was a finalist for the 2017 Publishing Triangle Award for Trans and Gender-Variant Literature. Jay is a contributing editor with The Operating System. Look for him on Twitter @divinetailor and on Tumblr http://jaybesemer.tumblr.com.

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The Brooklyn Rail

APR 2018

All Issues