Open Letters Monthly

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from "8 Equations"

 

Pi Burned AlphabeticsAtomic Snowstorms in Left Handed Corners of the MindCircumference of Infinity & Where it Has Gotten Us

 It's our winning way at losing that brings us here.Things that survive a nuclear winter?Cockroaches, twinkies & infinity.In time, rifles blossom in the dark& water pounds voices from roofs.Shadows would crawl into rocksif the galaxy opened a wave in the night's lung& we would think of nothing except timenot existing in the cursive call of violinsexcept your mother speaking thru background radiationexcept the white noise of a whimperexcept the music of lost charts& blind notes scrawled on your hand in the rainhum your lips numb as bleached sandstoneunfound in KOFA turn-around canyonssing the sight of an octave stretched out beyond the eyethere's no word to suck the poison from a snakebit legno sound for destruction put in abeyancewe need more than threnody& colored ice stirred into starshinemore than ribs curved back to the bow in wingsmore than a sliver of saliva lipped to a figure 8on cold palms warmed to a cheeks heatwhen you touch memy eyes pound with night like a bruiseyour voice shifts with an oiled flamemy heart pushes night thru missing limbs& your breath beats like an owlI'm all climacteric in this one & done flesh calculusboiled down to it's bare beginningsof a bright tone tuned to a galactic string's risen voice  ___J.R. Pearson has published work in A Capella Zoo ,Word Riot, Ghoti, Weave, Boxcar Review, and Tipton. He was recently included in the anthology: Burning Gorgeous: Seven 21st Century Poets.