SurVision Magazine
An international online magazine
that publishes Surrealist poetry in English.
Issue Ten
ADAM LAWRENCE
Fish in Barrel Shoots Man
It wasn't easy.
You try handling a weapon
with slippery skin, no hands.
Then again, it was only one man.
Alone and vulnerable.
Like a mammal far from land.
Do I have regrets? Sometimes.
Like, as the pale moon of his face
crested the ridge of the barrel,
the slack line in the middle
began to pull upwards.
But since the revolution,
I know that every fish in a barrel
has a job to do.
Intelligence Test #1
I put my tongue out for a snowflake
but caught a crow instead.
To wash my hair
I wait until it rains.
If I meet a balloon on the street
I'll offer it advice.
You can't teach a hen to make soup
but you can induce it to tell the truth.
You can do a lot of things with an egg
but you can't fake it.
On the brightest blue morning
I powdered my nose with an axe.
Lady Goderich always carried around a quart berry basket
filled with silver foxes.
On the old road at night you can see
motherless children munching on marginalia.
In hot weather we breathe milk
and sleep indoors.
The whole neighourhood was scandalized when they learned
the screwdriver made his children work on Saturday.
If I shrank to the size of a pea
I'd wash my feet.
When I go out in public I make sure
to thread my tail through my belt loop.
*This poem was written as a response to Alberta Turner's poetry prompt "Intelligence Test," in Robin Behn & Chase Twichell (eds.), The Practice of Poetry (William Morrow, 2001), pp. 109-110.
Adam Lawrence is from New Brunswick, Canada. He currently works as a freelance editor and writer. His poetry has appeared, or is forthcoming, in Train: A Poetry Journal, where is the river, Vastarien, FreeFall Magazine, and Carousel Magazine.
