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-rw-r--r--text/wip/angeltoabraham.txt13
-rw-r--r--text/wip/apollo11.txt16
-rw-r--r--text/wip/ars-words-meaning__.txt9
-rw-r--r--text/wip/big-dipper.txt16
-rw-r--r--text/wip/deathstrumpet.txt35
-rw-r--r--text/wip/i-am.txt26
-rw-r--r--text/wip/i-am2.txt11
-rw-r--r--text/wip/moongone.txt6
-rw-r--r--text/wip/mountain.txt32
9 files changed, 164 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/text/wip/angeltoabraham.txt b/text/wip/angeltoabraham.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab1f17e --- /dev/null +++ b/text/wip/angeltoabraham.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,13 @@
1Abraham, Abraham, you are old and cannot hear
2my small voice under the creaking of your grief.
3Your eyes are dim and connot see the ram
4as it creates itself from the bush, fashioning
5its horns from brambles, its wool from leaves,
6its hooves from the rock of the mountain.
7
8Your hand is shaky, but it is sure to its goal.
9The knife is blunt but not blunt enough.
10
11I am here to stay your hand, to blunt
12the knife, to bring the ram out from itself
13so that it can realize its purpose
diff --git a/text/wip/apollo11.txt b/text/wip/apollo11.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..5c6ef3c --- /dev/null +++ b/text/wip/apollo11.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
1So it's the fucking moon. Big deal. As if
2you haven't seen it before, tacked to the sky
3like a piece of rotten meat, or a maudlin
4
5love letter (the _i_'s dotted neatly with hearts)
6on the sky's door like the ninety-eight theses.
7
8Don't stare at it like it means anything.
9Don't give it the chance to collect meaning
10from your outstretched hand, like an old pigeon.
11
12Don't dare ascribe it a will, or call it fickle,
13or think it has any say in your affairs.
14
15It's separated from you by three hundred and eighty
16thousand miles of empty space,
diff --git a/text/wip/ars-words-meaning__.txt b/text/wip/ars-words-meaning__.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..27177d0 --- /dev/null +++ b/text/wip/ars-words-meaning__.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,9 @@
1_How astonishing it is that language can almost mean,
2 but frightening that it does not quite._
3_A word is elegy to what it signifies._
4
5The world is somewhat large and unwieldy.
6This is something I think we can all agree on.
7And although we may be unwieldy, knocking around semi-anonymously between our work and our families, between eating and sleeping, between the bigness that surrounds us on both sides like a tall hedge wall, we are by no means large.
8This is something else we can agree on, if we're honest with ourselves.
9
diff --git a/text/wip/big-dipper.txt b/text/wip/big-dipper.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..095e665 --- /dev/null +++ b/text/wip/big-dipper.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,16 @@
1I didn't see it for days, or even months.
2I lost track after a while how long it was.
3Then one night, there it was, reclining
4on the mountains as if they were a couch.
5_I missed you_, I said, but it didn't hear
6or it pretended not to, I don't know which.
7I thought it was looking right at me, but
8it could've been staring over my shoulder
9at something glinting. I guess I have to try
10harder, try something different. I'm going
11to sing to it, bring it flowers every night,
12something white to brighten up my hands.
13
14Years later, when I've won it back, when
15it shows itself to me without asking, I'll
16
diff --git a/text/wip/deathstrumpet.txt b/text/wip/deathstrumpet.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ab901ff --- /dev/null +++ b/text/wip/deathstrumpet.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
1| He didn't have any polish so he spit-shined the whole thing
2| until it gleamed like a [tomato on the vine][] that was begging
3| to be picked and thrown on some caprese. Death loved caprese.
4
5| He stood up to put the horn to his lips, trying to imagine
6| it was a woman he loved. He blushed as he realized how bad
7| [the metaphor was][]. He practiced anyway for six hours a day
8| in front of the mirror---what else to do with all the time?
9
10| Death looked at [himself in the mirror][] as he played, the trumpet
11| suspended in midair. _Damn vampire rules_, he thought.
12| He was always worried he might have [missed a spot][] while shaving
13| but he'd never know unless a stranger---he had no friends---
14| was kind enough. Not that he goes out anyway or meets people.
15
16| He started waking up late, staying in bed later.
17| He started thinking he was depressed. He never did eat
18| that caprese, and it started getting soggy, green spots
19| spreading on the mozzarella like bedsores. The sun
20| filtered through the [kitchen blinds like smoke][]. He had
21| to get out of the house. He decided to go to the arcade.
22
23| When he got there, it was empty except for a boy
24| [with dead eyes][]. So far so good, Death thought.
25| He was playing a first-person shooter, something violent.
26| Death walked past him and watched out of the corner
27| of his eye. The kid was good. Death decided
28| to congratulate him. He had his trumpet in his hand.
29
30[himself in the mirror]: moongone.html
31[with dead eyes]: big-dipper.html
32[tomato on the vine]: wallpaper.html
33[the metaphor was]: leaf.html
34[missed a spot]: january.html
35[kitchen blinds like smoke]: what-we-are-made-of.html
diff --git a/text/wip/i-am.txt b/text/wip/i-am.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..f4727a9 --- /dev/null +++ b/text/wip/i-am.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,26 @@
1I am a great pillar of white smoke.
2I am Lot's nameless wife turned to salt.
3
4I am the wound on Christ's back as he moans
5with the pounding of a hammer on his wrist.
6
7I am the nail that holds his house together,
8the long nail in his right wrist that points
9
10toward heaven. I am that nail and I am
11the builder of the house, a strong house
12
13with a sound foundation. I am not the only
14one who lives here. I am the god of
15
16a race of dust mites who build monuments
17in my honor every day in the small dark
18
19corners of my house. I destroy each one
20before I sleep each night. Every morning
21
22there are still more. I am unaware where
23all of them are. There are too many.
24
25I am a god without a name in an empty house.
26I am an open wound festering in the white sun.
diff --git a/text/wip/i-am2.txt b/text/wip/i-am2.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..0a8ae81 --- /dev/null +++ b/text/wip/i-am2.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
1I am a great pillar of white smoke.
2I am Lot's nameless wife encased in salt.
3
4I am the wound on Christ's wrist groaning
5under the repeated weight of a hammer.
6
7I am the nail in the wound that points
8toward heaven. I am the nail that holds
9
10his kingdom together around my cold
11thin body.
diff --git a/text/wip/moongone.txt b/text/wip/moongone.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..9168ff0 --- /dev/null +++ b/text/wip/moongone.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
1The moon is gone and in its place a mirror.
2Looking at the night sky, the viewer sees only his own face as viewed from far away, surrounded by a vague landscape of mountains, the plain he's standing on, a river.
3He sees he is alone in the wilderness.
4He wonders in being alone.
5
6But behind him, the viewer sees a pursuer.
diff --git a/text/wip/mountain.txt b/text/wip/mountain.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..7b3df14 --- /dev/null +++ b/text/wip/mountain.txt
@@ -0,0 +1,32 @@
1---
2title: The mountain
3genre: verse
4
5id: mountain
6toc: "The mountain"
7
8project:
9 title: Elegies for alternate selves
10 class: elegies
11 order: 19
12 prev:
13 - title: The moon is gone and in its place a mirror
14 link: moongone
15 next:
16 - title: Serengeti
17 link: serengeti
18...
19
20The other side of the mountain is
21not the same mountain. This side
22is stickysweet full of phone calls
23where not much was said but promises
24
25to call some other time or visit.
26The other side of the mountain is
27a bell, ringing in the church to mark
28the day we couldn't visit anymore.
29
30The other side of the mountain is
31not a mountain. At the bottom a river
32courses past a ferry in the dark.