We met as phantoms in the mountains,
Unable to avoid the transnational arm of sleep
Of whatever city we got raised in.I had such a beautiful dreamtime, an electric field,
My only weapon against it was to escape
Like Fantômas to the mountains where I metFailed companies still operating under rotations of
Wild & loaded faces. A party danced nightly
In whatever settlement arose next.Driving hard down the rue we strafed & founded
The ghost of Baghdad, a bag-heavy breeze
Of phantoms to maintain, & that we mooned,Howling up a storm so that landslide myths would soon
Descend on the Coalition of opulence.
But that city’d been razed alreadyBy the ELK, the Electric Light Korporation
Illuminating bones with a muzak unknown to me:
A silent fountain able to maintainDespite the holey cluster the church had become—
Towering opinions having bleakly caved in.
Now everyone wants to sit in the roseOf Venus: hermits are smitten by her ravines, suburban
Drunkards burn like moths in her brambled gin;
Needy men gyrate then faint on endBut no waterfall can compete on Stag’s night as dear old
Diana swallows the mature-aged sex industry
In whatever gun city she gets a raise next.It’s a slippery slope, a Humming Flower production,
A piquant high of opals, as though the sea level’s
Risen to a newfound mountain peak.Sometimes the ocean darkens, full of deadly schrapnel,
Orphic oysters berthing with news of forever
On our razored city shoreline—It’s a furphy the Centaurs defecate on
From the height of the Collapse & into the Gulf,
Another mountain to climb for the Falling Man.Roland keyboards on “beast mode” amplify the shock,
Sounding like teeth-plaque, like a bum-rush out or in
To whatever position will arouse me nix:Fire drills ring out!—but I keep sleeping through it: I’m a wake
On an invisible pulley above a valley of tears, hanging out
With Fantômas of the mountainous Allegories& we’re watching the latest TV wheeling & dealing
Over Libya from a romantic holiday chalet,
Our waterless eyes like onyx asCraters explode & palm trees curdle over the edge of
This railing, designed for & streamed to those who dream
To meet like phantoms in the mountains
Of whatever city they got raised in.
Note: this poem is an inversion of Villes II by Rimbaud
- 115: SPACE
with A Sometimes
114: NO THEME 13
with J Toledo & C Tse
113: INVISIBLE WALLS
with A Walker & D Disney
112: TREAT
with T Dearborn
111: BABY
with S Deo & L Ferney
110: POP!
with Z Frost & B Jessen
109: NO THEME 12
with C Maling & N Rhook
108: DEDICATION
with L Patterson & L Garcia-Dolnik
107: LIMINAL
with B Li
106: OPEN
with C Lowe & J Langdon
105: NO THEME 11
with E Grills & E Stewart
104: KIN
with E Shiosaki
103: AMBLE
with E Gomez and S Gory
102: GAME
with R Green and J Maxwell
101: NO THEME 10
with J Kinsella and J Leanne
100: BROWNFACE
with W S Dunn
99: SINGAPORE
with J Ip and A Pang
97 & 98: PROPAGANDA
with M Breeze and S Groth
96: NO THEME IX
with M Gill and J Thayil
95: EARTH
with M Takolander
94: BAYT
with Z Hashem Beck
93: PEACH
with L Van, G Mouratidis, L Toong
92: NO THEME VIII
with C Gaskin
91: MONSTER
with N Curnow
90: AFRICAN DIASPORA
with S Umar
89: DOMESTIC
with N Harkin
88: TRANSQUEER
with S Barnes and Q Eades
87: DIFFICULT
with O Schwartz & H Isemonger
86: NO THEME VII
with L Gorton
85: PHILIPPINES
with Mookie L and S Lua
84: SUBURBIA
with L Brown and N O'Reilly
83: MATHEMATICS
with F Hile
82: LAND
with J Stuart and J Gibian
81: NEW CARIBBEAN
with V Lucien
80: NO THEME VI
with J Beveridge
57.1: EKPHRASTIC
with C Atherton and P Hetherington
57: CONFESSION
with K Glastonbury
56: EXPLODE
with D Disney
55.1: DALIT / INDIGENOUS
with 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 P Brown
52.0: TOIL
with C Jenkins
51.1: UMAMI
with L Davies and Lifted Brow
51.0: TRANSTASMAN
with B Cassidy
50.0: NO THEME IV
with J Tranter
49.1: A BRITISH / IRISH
with M Hall and S Seita
49.0: OBSOLETE
with T Ryan
48.1: CANADA
with K MacCarter and S Rhodes
48.0: CONSTRAINT
with C Wakeling
47.0: COLLABORATION
with L Armand and H Lambert
46.1: MELBOURNE
with M Farrell
46.0: NO THEME III
with F Plunkett
45.0: SILENCE
with J Owen
44.0: GONDWANALAND
with D Motion
43.1: PUMPKIN
with K MacCarter
43.0: MASQUE
with A Vickery
42.0: NO THEME II
with G Ryan
41.1: RATBAGGERY
with D Hose
41.0: TRANSPACIFIC
with J Rowe and M Nardone
40.1: INDONESIA
with K MacCarter
40.0: INTERLOCUTOR
with L Hart
39.1: GIBBERBIRD
with S Gory
39.0: JACKPOT!
with S Wagan Watson
38.0: SYDNEY
with A Lorange
37.1: NEBRASKA
with S Whalen
37.0: NO THEME!
with A Wearne
36.0: ELECTRONICA
with J Jones