SurVision Magazine / Joanna Fuhrman

History Lesson # 3: A Cento

In 1848 the social contract
becomes a bowl of sun-baked mud.

Outside the white spectacle,
Eve was the first animal.

By 1890, it took a pound of powdered magnesium
to photograph the underside of leaves.

We dragged Paris into a part of the brain
whose memory is made up,

official documents stuffed
in a slippage of time.

After centuries of being arrested,
the sky was a kind of lid.

The ungroundedness of a wave:
mirrors reflecting themselves.

Not True/False but Quality-Controlled Red State Picaresque

In my headphones, voices:

Farewell sonic glimpses    Hello ghost telephones

In the briefing room,
the reporter's laugh—

the planet of D.C.        shining    bulbous

another clown nose
threatening to replace

the terrestrial with a whirlpool
of cosmic slop

No clouds    to obstruct the view
of strangers exchanging

face sandwiches

Just another 4th wave
ism for us

a knock-knock
macaroni necklace

to hang some
troubles here

Listen to What You Can Not Hear

At six a.m., the planet craters inward
like a teenage girl, half-afraid
of a full-length mirror, and the trees
stop shaking for a millisecond,
the clams and mussels open
their shells to the passing clouds
as if to say hi, how are you and mean it.

Is this why the security guards
at the museum hide themselves under
the sculptures so it's difficult to tell
what's art and what's human,
what's cow-spotted mountain and
what's mountain-spotted cow?
Perhaps this is why all the babies
are throwing their mashed-up carrots
in the air, why the social worker claims
she'd rather be a pre-sliced mango than a flag.

Joanna Fuhrman is from Brooklyn, New York. Her poetry collections are Freud in Brooklyn (2000); Ugh Ugh Ocean (2003); Moraine (2006); Pageant (2009), winner of the Kinereth Gensler Prize from Alice James Books; and The Year of Yellow Butterflies (2015). She is also the author of the chapbook The Emotive Function (2011). Fuhrman has taught writing at Rutgers University and in public schools for the Teachers & Writers Collaborative. She has been poetry editor for Boog City and curator of the reading series for the Saint Mark's Church Poetry Project in New York.

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An international online magazine that publishes Surrealist poetry in English. Issue One JOANNA FUHRMAN History Lesson # 3: A Cento In 1848 the social contract becomes a bowl of sun-baked mud. Outside the white spectacle, Eve was the first animal. By 1890, it took a pound of powdered magnesium to photograph the underside of leaves. We dragged Paris into a part of the brain whose memory is made up, official documents stuffed in a slippage of time. After centuries of being arrested, the sky was a kind of lid. The ungroundedness of a wave: mirrors reflecting themselves. Not True/False but Quality-Controlled Red State Picaresque In my headphones, voices: Farewell sonic glimpses Hello ghost telephones In the briefing room, the reporter's laugh— the planet of D.C. shining bulbous another clown nose threatening to replace the terrestrial with a whirlpool of cosmic slop No clouds to obstruct the view of strangers exchanging face sandwiches Just another 4th wave ism for us a knock-knock macaroni necklace to hang some troubles here Listen to What You Can Not Hear At six a.m., the planet craters inward like a teenage girl, half-afraid of a full-length mirror, and the trees stop shaking for a millisecond, the clams and mussels open their shells to the passing clouds as if to say hi, how are you and mean it. Is this why the security guards at the museum hide themselves under the sculptures so it's difficult to tell what's art and what's human, what's cow-spotted mountain and what's mountain-spotted cow? Perhaps this is why all the babies are throwing their mashed-up carrots in the air, why the social worker claims she'd rather be a pre-sliced mango than a flag. Joanna Fuhrman is from Brooklyn, New York. Her poetry collections are Freud in Brooklyn (2000); Ugh Ugh Ocean (2003); Moraine (2006); Pageant (2009), winner of the Kinereth Gensler Prize from Alice James Books; and The Year of Yellow Butterflies (2015). She is also the author of the chapbook The Emotive Function (2011). Fuhrman has taught writing at Rutgers University and in public schools for the Teachers & Writers Collaborative. She has been poetry editor for Boog City and curator of the reading series for the Saint Mark's Church Poetry Project in New York.
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