Joseph Mains

three poems from A Portable Model of How Memory Works


Entropy:
              you&me
                              The swallow on your right clavicle
flies the ribbon KIMBERLY up your breast
trailing down the sternum. The left drags
the word ENDURE down depression sternum
both meet and tangle into a lace of nest.
Tomorrow they fly away from your chest. Leave
the nest     your heart fly into darking dark.
They will spite their nature
they will spite
nature and they will spite the seasons,
seasons that now
now don’t end,
the stagnant seasons, universal
seasons, the stone gathering seasons
and the casting away stones seasons. Ah yes,
seasons don’t change when time stops. With the stop of time
swallows release from binding return.

Travel becomes the expression giving up all other expression.




~    ~    ~    ~    ~    ~   



Kinesis
Jesus
please
us (pillowfight) Last evening, ah     we drank Beaujolais in coffee cups     (snoozebar)
A tricky necklace rounds the clavicle
Yes, I know     this is shameless
Let’s wrestle, Morningtime, let’s wrestle                                     (snoozebar)
hey coffee eyes     hi sad song
Busy touching till we’re dizzy stupid
your breath
warm & raw & again please




~    ~    ~    ~    ~    ~   



During sleep she would finger faint ridges of the tattoo on your chest. So sexy:
          of the scar
               of the paintbrush
                    of the tattoo gun.     She, gentle squeeze,
                                                                                   flesh surrounding swallow wings.
      Caused birds to fly on your body
      and she wondered if the birds on your body would fly
      if her hands were not there to coax them.

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