Stiletto
from stylus
writing utensil
once applied to wax
tablet incises
its blunt end rubs out
an endless erasure
*
Gary Snyder:
the human psyche remains at best a kind of Paleolithic thing
*
Electric fish jam each other’s
signals, mating calls
sing electric
songs
When Dylan goes electric
the guitar vibrates
a frequency
of sex
*
The forensic scientist can’t quite make out
the letter tops of TATTLER
Will Graham’s home address
*
The foot soles of elephants
say hello in another
sensory domain
*
Other vocabs from Brett
Ratner’s Red
Dragon
sundowner, chinwag, gumshoe
Vector
We cross the tracks
reminded of the cross
shale sliding us down
into the understory
of rusty thorns
*
a quantity possessing both
direction and magnitude
represented by an arrow
by a sere vine in sunlight
climbing
the shattered green
pieces of a toy
assault rifle
*
Dog collars tinkle
in the blinding
light paw
prints in the sidewalk
wet cement down
to the toenails
clickety-clack, moveable type
*
Woodsy interstice
train tracks
between the back
yards where
Theo forages a rail
road spike
a strikethrough
transgression
*
Every time we pass,
the same white cotton yellow
grass bird’s nest
Theo collects another plastic shard
of the pellet gun
as if gluing it back at home
resurrecting the original
impulse
Magnetic Moments
The Survivor Tree holds the sheet
on Enforceable Statements
to the refrigerator door
I’ll be glad to discuss this
with you as soon as
the arguing stops
*
Leaky pineapple blood
vessels and hell
I’d settle for a cup
of salami and cheese
cubes from the hospital cafeteria
*
GBM SURVIVORS TO THRIVERS
New growth not
encased runs
too deep for full
removal, 16 yo son
my baby but forceful
adult enough
to make some decisions
*
Surviving a downfall
of volcanic debris
the tree transported
back to 9/11
*
Bad enough
to have to watch
rhinoceros beetles
wrestle for mating rights
from a movie studio
in the Cotswolds
*
The inverted tree stands upside
down in a field
of magnets
This occurs to me too
late to make a
difference
Cameron Morse lives with his wife Lili and two children in Independence, Missouri. His poems have been published in numerous magazines, including New Letters, Bridge Eight, Portland Review and South Dakota Review. His first collection, Fall Risk, won Glass Lyre Press’s 2018 Best Book Award. His latest is Far Other (Woodley Press, 2020). He holds and MFA from the University of Kansas City—Missouri and serves as Senior Reviews editor at Harbor Review and Poetry editor at Harbor Editions. For more information, check out his Facebook page or website.