Andrew Felsinger
Two Poems
of saying

not chaos but theory of chaos
panoply from elephant to alphabet

early at the same time as late or coming,
and, as with all natural desires, snow in waves,

inchoate speech, the letter v
vacillating in an obstinate babble

gathered in a crate of damp inflections,
these letters like ash-- born

with their mouths thrown more open,
a speech vanishing in speech,

silence driven in a repetition of the weather,
this susurrus of clay,

past, present and future tense collapsing upon one another
in a surplus of saying which speaks its own name.



Another Typical Californian Poem

Using everything

    in its own

          arrangement
Trees loom like lime
          elephants
Stucco homes inelegantly bark
          at thumbtack moon at blue gum stars
a road as happy as a horn a loon

“Whose
          crap
          is that in the ravine?”

          Sky revolves to purple enunciation

          Emptiness of the Western United

                    There are parties, particles, particulars,
          clothes left to shiver on the line,
swaddled children,
          close cropped grass, mayonnaise,
          an armful of sun, nobody & no one,
                    a reflection, time enough
                    green, crowd yellow…

Who slept on that mattress?
          Whose home is that shattered in the

                                                                  drink?
          Who escapes with a cocktail,

                                       David Hockney?

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