like a star
who snuffs out
its own path
like a tsar
who wears a
many-beaméd trinket on his chest
like a target for a
Taser or a laser
-guided stent
quasaring throb that knocks
the breast
of the
ocean-going
vessel
fist-sized wren or
cardiac event
vein choked
with the plush that coats
the stag’s rack
stoked gland or glitch
pumping out error
in the constellation Lyra
the second-most glamorous star
the second to be daguerreotyped
and assassinated
stepping out of its car
galactic halflife
neural
leap
no wider than a
a single
bacterium
weak heir
‘s hairline
who chokes up at the opera
eyes glued to his lorgnette ting ting in the
operating theater where the gods all
cluster at the trompe l’oeil
dome and suppose an
even more monstrous eye
looks back
who can swallow the view whole a pupil
who can take the whole thing down
on his knees in the backroom on his back in the sacristy
and
vomit it back up
on the bar on the altar
on the street
outside the viper room
who
chokes on the skein
unwinding from his
bolt like a colt’s mane
extravagance, consciousness,
prize sheep that can bleat
through its cut throat
pleat
that can spread
like blood on the waves and
fetch a price that makes the wind rise
and hurl fleets at the future
nerves pinch at the side and
hold the garment up in rictus
grin and say alive
whatever’s too much is the
price
like a dog returns to its vomit
to appraise it once again
and cart it off
for a price
and the neck
of that doggy star
can bend
- FREE: 20 Poets anthology
- 91: NO THEME VIIISUBMIT to C Gaskin 90: MONSTERwith N Curnow, coming soon! 89: DOMESTICwith N Harkin 88: TRANSQUEERwith S Barnes and Q Eades 87: DIFFICULTwith O Schwartz & H Isemonger 86: NO THEME VIIwith L Gorton 85: PHILIPPINESwith Mookie L and S Lua 84: SUBURBIAwith L Brown and N O'Reilly 83: MATHEMATICSwith Fiona Hile 82: LANDwith J Stuart and J Gibian 81: NEW CARIBBEANwith Vladimir Lucien 80: NO THEME VIwith Judith Beveridge 57.1: EKPHRASTICwith C Atherton and P Hetherington 57: CONFESSIONwith Keri Glastonbury 56: EXPLODE with Dan Disney 55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUSwith M Chakraborty and K MacCarter 55: FUTURE MACHINES with Bella Li 54: NO THEME V with F Wright and O Sakr 53.0: THE END with Pam Brown 52.0: TOIL with Carol Jenkins 51.1: UMAMI with Luke Davies and Lifted Brow 51.0: TRANSTASMAN with Bonny Cassidy 50.0: NO THEME IV with John Tranter 49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH with M Hall and S Seita 49.0: OBSOLETE with Tracy Ryan 48.1: CANADA with K MacCarter and S Rhodes 48.0: CONSTRAINT with Corey Wakeling 47.0: COLLABORATION with L Armand and H Lambert 46.1: MELBOURNE with Michael Farrell 46.0: NO THEME III with Felicity Plunkett 45.0: SILENCE with Jan Owen 44.0: GONDWANALAND with Derek Motion 43.1: PUMPKIN with Kent MacCarter 43.0: MASQUE with Ann Vickery 42.0: NO THEME II with Gig Ryan 41.1: RATBAGGERY with Duncan Hose 41.0: TRANSPACIFIC with J Rowe and M Nardone 40.1: INDONESIA with Kent MacCarter 40.0: INTERLOCUTOR with Libby Hart 39.1: GIBBERBIRD with Sarah Gory 39.0: JACKPOT! with Sam Wagan Watson 38.0: SYDNEY with Astrid Lorange 37.1: NEBRASKA with Sean Whalen 37.0: NO THEME! with Alan Wearne 36.0: ELECTRONICA with Jill Jones
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