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I watch her exquisite form spring to near flight
Watch her devour vast stretches of landscape
I don’t think of sex anymore; it’s too
I think of the moment the doe emerges
from the wood’s edge
Exposing herself to the calamitous
world of men
She is timid but she does not retrace
her steps. I take her in. Hold her
Quiet. Consuming. Whole
I don’t think of the hunters
waiting in blinds
waiting for her to pass
to be distracted
I don’t give mind to the depth of their wanting
I watch her exquisite form spring to near flight
Watch her devour vast stretches of landscape
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I
he comes in
speaks loan words in French
Foreign tongues
impart dry skin and insides
what more to say
They bathe her in the foundry
must cast this Perseus
from a single mold
When craft becomes art
Ars Ingenio
They throw in pewter
dishes plates and blades
pulled under the weight of them
A viper couldn’t save her
molten the bronze
the Gorgon The artist and the artisan
I.I
and what was there to resist?
Temptation
The Composition of Risk
Not romance. No.
Not romance. Silence
Her stone tongue wags
tastes the invitation to sense
erases the topography of resistance
disturbs all memories of cheek-to-cheek
As cloudless spinal fluid drains
away all movement
the distance pulls sors and siren’s call
II
She speaks genius remorseless
from an asp’s lips
after the first kiss
there is no other
no daughter of deuteronomy
after charging fills all cavities
They brush away surface impurities
it takes ages
for the new shape
to cool
II.I
For new life adhere to me
keep nothing
For new life adhere to me
keep inside voices
keep the doors locked at all times
For new life adhere to me
keep it all in––ad caelum
keep the bronze from caking
the wax from melting
keep quiet hope for violets
for fire poppies
dust seed over snow
III
Ready the reedless body
as the altar–––a hair’s breadth
for a second life to hold fast
a carrion crow
a stork, an oriole
This mother mold is my shelter
My investment. Sprue to the Gods
Carve me over again from burnt umber
from stone
from this kiln I am reborn
In this Renaissance
chase the metal and bury me deep
blast me with loess sand
cut away divine threads
reeds for breath
weld virgin esse after death
III.I
I am sentinel at sacral center
where the children still hold their bellies
and pantomime laughter
I am moored
leave a coin in shallow water
I am screaming patina
bow your heads and pray
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Not on stage but bathed in purple light
he’s kicking at the bathroom door
the bottom-outside corner
i cant swallow
my fingers entwine and i lose linear time
i pray to the God of Bathroom Locks
to the God of Taking Men
to the God of Sequences and Entanglements
Eternity with fermata
no answer
But blessed be the Angels of Forgetting
threadbare thistledown wings
dull trumpets blare dulcet notes
in melted praline
Forget with all your heart
In a jazz club in Kansas City
the corner outside
18th and Vine
walls draped in velvet
air stained thick violet
prelude to a happening
The dance floor floods with fine-
swaying bodies
The players’ horns flash and rock
twist in
violent choreography
back and forth
On stage she wails
the keyhole blinks
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4. |
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No one asks
how i got in
they all ask the essential
question: why
did I do it?
A better question:
how am i in two
two places at once?
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5. |
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[ They ] That’s the thing these they
[ It’s hard to talk about [ It ] drips
[[ Sticky ] swaying palms honeysuckle
inside inner thighs ] Walk under
heaven [ They? ] It’s hard to talk
about it [[ I can’t keep myself ]
[ safe ] inside ] Fleshy [ skies reflect
I can’t keep myself safe ]
[[[ it’s a trick ] a trap ] [[ It’s fleshy ]
skies reflect [ deeper ] [ beasts ]
With no teeth ] only it’s a
trick a trap Its [ tongue [ the
moment ] [ I froze ]] [ allowed ] deeper
Beasts with no teeth Only [ let
them Take and [ take ] shape ]
Tongue [ the moment ] I froze
[ allowed [ unspeakable acts ]][ the
laying of hands ] [ Let them [ Take ]]
and take [ Shape ] how to live after
dying ] from the unspeakable acts
[ the laying of hands ] [ Walk into the
ocean ] [ live after dying from the outside in]
Outline [ trim the line ] Walk into the deep
blue sea [ Bathe in your body ]
Soft silky fill [ Outside in outline ]
[ Trim [ the line ] sheets gulp wind]
[ Regret it ] Your body soft silky
Fill the knowledge in your cup
Sheets [[ gulp wind ] regret ] [[ I can’t ]
hold it ] [[ Watch it spill ] over ] the
[ knowledge [ In your cup ] an amber
sacrament ] [ It can’t hold ]
[ Watch it spill over and over again ]
Beasts of burden are [ They. ]
[ That’s the thing ] [ these Gods wash the feet
from [ sin ] drips sticky swaying
Three sheets to the wind ]
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6. |
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easily lift the sheet like a breeze
leave the lights on
*leaves* *stays*
freefall in harness
sold pottery. i never told anyone
it all comes down to belief. Monarch
a lever long enough
a branching:
a. leaf
b. leaf
c. them
d. part
Mistakes can be lethal
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8. |
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Silence* is so accurate
(*A quiet way to say suffocation)
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9. |
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noun: giving up; resignation verb: give up; resign
abandonment abandon
abdication buckle under
acquiescence capitulate
capitulation cave in
cessation cede
dedition commit
delivery concede
giving way cosign
relenting cry uncle
relinquishment deliver up
renunciation eat crow
submission eat humble pie
white flag entrust
yielding forego
play dead
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10. |
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Fish fill this river and lies
The fish die in time
Only I stand in the river alive
I’ve waded out, hiking up my skirts
Barefoot I stand on the altar
Mud between toes, fingerless gloves
She stands on the soggy bank
Holds my bloody sandals
Men fill this river and lies
The men die when I choose
The ripples serpent past
as double-headed eels
The laying on of hands
The avarice in how they want us
The hunger in the wanting
We are all embarrassed to look.
Purity fills this river and lies
The heads of men shift inside
A plaited basket’s surface, faces
Gone slack. How else to take
Our power back? I’m shimmering
Judith and what’s the true width
And depth of this fishless river
Swimming in glittering death
Current fills this river and lies
The current wild from not sleeping
Ichthys covered in scales of justice
And the Augustine price
Of flooded light–––
a cleansed corpse
a consolatio for the living
a baptism for the dead
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11. |
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I start dead center
smack in the middle
of Ochre and Red on Red
no security at the door
outside or in
they cant follow
I slip right in and lose no time
Conjure a lit cigarette and press
The first goes up so fast
The smell of melting canvas
triggers a memory
a savory something
about foreign coins
I stand dead center
in all my glory
on a wooden bench in the Rothko room
at the Phillips
red as far as the eye can see
titian walls touch off like kindling
thick smoke stains my hair
The rest go quicker than i’d guessed
More akin to a roar than a wail
And, yes, because you asked
with a certain vehemence*
like they want me
to watch them all go
(*A difficult way to say yearning)
Before I know it
they are all gone
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A compilation album based on Liner Notes for Getting Out Without Catching Fire by Michèle Saint-Michel. Each artist responded to a specific poem from the collection. What you hear on this album are the sonic responses and reinterpretations of the text by the musicians. Some tracks are in collaboration with Saint-Michel via spoken word. Artists include Sophie Stone, Sheena Dham, Hermon Mehari, Lina Dannov, Arun Sood, Sylvia Hinz, Eryk Salvaggio, James Fella, and Silvia Cignoli.
