The Brooklyn Rail

NOV 2017

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NOV 2017 Issue
Poetry

four

 

 

fish

I found a bit of fishing wire
fishy is a word for s/t suspicious
and also realness realness to be a woman to be like a woman
it is a sexist term      fish the stench of bad pussy
exalted by drag queens n it shd be
fish raised up to satellites
fish most frolicsome along the cables at the bottom of the sea
as they hum from our conversation
I heard a faroff person singing plainly
the fishingwire I twined around my fingers
n it jumped away in the grasses
where the clover sups the bee
starlings n swallows and a single cormorant atop a buoy
what am I a nature poet
you are so like a man
bragging about your giant cock
I think the poem is ready
to come into the pome again

 

 

 

I am so filled w/ posy and plaisance

I am so filled w/ posy and plaisance
to endyte to so fair and tough a knight
atop a mountain devoutly gazed on
a lake where otterys are said to harbor
what in aztec means bathing house temescal
n the cattails last years ghosts not yet ripe
the ducks that turne out to be decoys still
napping together like you said we shd
if we as tender wooden things alyve
on blue water to willo the lotus
dragonfly purpose not t’impede my progress
bad algae chokes the reeds n rainbow trout
bastard slave to my pome n I like it
and now and now I lyke you best of all

 

 

 

having an elk with you

having an elk with you
having a smoke with you
having an artichoke with you
having a coke by myself

 

 

 

having an elk with you

having an elk w/ you
having a smoke w/ you
having a date w/ you, the fruits,
cold, hot fed by your hand
having an artichoke w/ you
having a coke by myself
having a non-soy jerky w/ you                                                                what is love but
having a cow omigod little death                                                            a constellation of
holding our noses thru coalinga                                                             significances
having a vision that was not a vision                                                     like-lyke magic
I came w/ the sun in my eye
you aint no basic ratlike personnage
abta be disappeared
but s/t extrahuman maybe abta be raptured
yakuza vapor caves at the base of the rockies
straight out of the annals of satan
hotpot we never found

 

Contributor

Julian Talamantez Brolaski

JULIAN TALAMANTEZ BROLASKI is a poet and country singer, the author of Of Mongrelitude (Wave Books 2017), Advice for Lovers (City Lights 2012), gowanus atropolis (Ugly Duckling Presse 2011), and co-editor of NO GENDER: Reflections on the Life & Work of kari edwards (Litmus Press / Belladonna Books 2009). Julian is the lead singer and rhythm guitarist in the bands Juan & the Pines (NYC) and The Western Skyline (Oakland). Julian currently lives in Santa Barbara, researching and editing a book on the Mescalero Apache female initiation ceremony.

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The Brooklyn Rail

NOV 2017

All Issues