relentless
pressure
Sometimes vermilion has a decon-
structed aesthetic. It wilts. Sad
flowers in a box. Is toxic to horses.
Signs of oral disease. Exposed foam
on the tongue. Just like Nike Blazers –
that new style, pretending to be old.
Jitneys were a form of hybrid be-
fore I was an Uber. Still are in
many places. An historical analogy.
Another one. A sunset cruise in a
convertible down a coastal highway.
Used to achieve rapid haemostasis.
Defensive
Barbicans
A great work culture. Remixed by
Ziggurat Salted IceCreams. Floral,
red fruit, white chocolate. But cult-tv
t-shirts are not homogeneous across
most hierarchical Bayesian approaches
to spatial distribution & are therefore
unlikely to provide shade. It may be
necessary to leverage your profess-
ional networks or recruit temporary
foreign workers for some guest shifts.
Après
le bal
after the painting by Magritte
In more modern times it would
be My Fair Lady. "I could have
danced all night, & still come back
for more." Or maybe not. Naked
on a bed, asleep. Not so much a
bed but a plinth. & she obviously
worn out, comfort not a consider-
ation. & the curtain that partitions
now from before drawn back to
reveal a destruction that has not
necessarily paused, houses on their
sides, the floor of the room, the out-
side, those hills beyond, all cracked
beyond repair, bilboquets run amok,
fallen into the grass or still flying
around. But this is back then, back
when the phonograph was barely
invented, & she no untouched Aphro-
dite but fully formed, fully conscious –
though unconscious – of her surrounds.
No seashore, no halfshell, no cherubs,
just somewhere offstage a disenchanted
Pygmalion translating some sheet
music to an upright piano & singing
to himself the before of it. "Down fell
the glass dear, broken, that's all,
just as my heart was after the ball."
Mark Young
was born in Aotearoa, New Zealand but now lives in a small town in
North Queensland in Australia. He the author of more than sixty books,
primarily text poetry but also including speculative fiction, vispo,
memoir, and art history. His most recent books are with the slow-paced turtle replaced by a
fast fish, published by Sandy Press in May 2023, and a free
downloadable chapbook of visuals and poems, Mercator Projected, published by
Half Day Moon Press in August 2023. A new book, Ley Lines II, has been published by Sandy Press in November 2023.