Words:
- Bookish
- Escapist
- Flamingo
- Tiddlywinks
- Glisten
- Cat
Phantasms
I’m a mousy mister, a bookish bloke.
My apple is crab; my cherry is choke.
My income is fixed; my budget is broke.
My dreams are fantastic, escapist, baroque:
tiddlywink towers that squop to the sky,
jacks in tall stacks, twenty knucklebones high,
checkers that leap, model airplanes that fly,
chess pieces polished with midnight-blue dye –
a game-player’s paradise! Pinball! Pachinko!
Graphics that glisten and pop! Lights a-blink-o
as bright as the feathers of fifty flamingos!
Sounds that go BLAST-O and BLAM-O and BINGO!
… I beg your pardon. I long for that.
I cook my supper. I pet my cat.
Ray Briggs teaches philosophy at Stanford University, and writes poems in their spare time. They are the author of Free Logic (UQP 2013) Common Sexual Fantasies, Ruined (Cordite 2015) and Modern American Gods, Volumes I and II (with Anna Zusman, self-published, 2018). Their poems have appeared in Rattle, Able Muse, Cordite, The Weekend Australian, and other venues.
Anna Zusman immigrated to the United States from the former Soviet Union when she was twelve. She currently teaches drawing and illustration at Southern Arkansas University. In her artwork she questions stereotypes and conventions. Anna regularly participates in zine festivals and exhibits her art around the US. She is a creator of many art books and zines including Mermaid Heritage (2014), Men from Dating Sites: Volume 2 (2019) and Modern American Gods Volumes I and II (with Ray Briggs, 2018).
http://www.annazusman.com/
