ABOUT

CONTENTS

EDITORIAL

ARCHIVE

LAGNIAPPE

MAST

SUBMISSIONS

 
FOUR POEMS
by Tracey Knapp

Calm

Envision this poem bordered by doves.
Doves are meant to pacify.

This is the calm of one dove's death:
a corpse, no longer clawing for life.

This is the beast, the fox after the kill.
After the feast, his chilling rest, his content exhale.

The slugs and maggots smooth ride
over the rotting body. Their silent indulgence.

Enter contrast: oiled crows. Let them devour the dove
carcass, consume the remaining flesh and maggots whole.

This is the bald tree they return to at night.
Hundreds perch like winter leaves.

The center root of the oldest birch
driving slowly into the cold dark dirt.

Through the loam, the dense organic.
The great waste, the once-life. Earth.



Conundrum

1.
I think it's when you're stuck.
It can't be solved. All outcomes fail.
Square pegs, round holes,
You know this kind of culdesac.

2.
I cannot abide by my own rules.
For example: I swore I would not look up the definition,
but I don't think I can define conundrum without it.

I can't go through with it. The poem shouldn't end yet.

3.
define (v):
to discover and set forth the meaning of.

To find. If not the dictionary, then where?
To set forth, here.

4.
conundrum (n):
You need to but you cannot.
You should have, and now see what.
Either way you look at it.
If you don't, you won't be able.



Sick Bird

We look heavenward and you
are a dim outline on spoiled clouds.
Your feathers are endless and unsoiled.
Your wings skim the cross-current of the collective
breath of man. You land running on wet cement.
There are no reverent feet on the turbulent walkways.
There are no crumbs on the steps of churches.
Your likeness glistens from their jeweled windows.
Pigeons darken in your presence.
Cold air combs you.

Can a dove live
in this cold winter weather?
Do the pigeons gather round you
to double your feathers?
Duck your head beneath your wing
in the wind, weary bird.
We will find you warm in the city
by sunlight, by smokestack.



Gemini

Infinite embryos, mortal mother
raped by swan. Twins, immoral and kissing.

Fantastic prophylactics for
unparallel axes. As in mixing milk

with marrow, sealing stone with cement.
Semen, simultaneously born, still

bonding. Kin skin touching. Unopposed
chromosomes, man & man coupling.

Secret reprises, repressed caresses. Careening
through bedsheets of gods and men,

brothers, covertly conjoining. The joy.
The irreparable coveting.