SurVision Magazine
An
international online magazine that
publishes Surrealist poetry
in English.
Issue Twelve
THAD DeVASSIE
Indie Film Set
A smallish pile of ham rests on the back of a hog,
and so is Rosemary. She is convinced it is
an obscure breed of pony.
Just before she digs her heels in to engage a hog squeal
and pen run, she reaches back to grab the ham
off its backside, holding it limply like a bunless sandwich,
the other hand clenching a makeshift belt-rein attached
to her pig-pony. A blackbird swoops down swiping
the ham from her fingers. Squealing of all kinds ensues.
Someone is yelling Cut! Cut! Cut! into the dank open air.
As a stand-alone scene this isn't making much sense.
Everyone is ad-libbing. Everyone is motionless and confused.
A scrawny, nameless handler moves within earshot
of everyone and suggests we'll fix it in post, then
quickly scampers off while yelling continue!
People in a nearby trailer are swearing and breaking
things again. Everyone avoids the trailer.
It is the only recurring theme.
Big Top Deceits
The trapeze artists' fortunes never hang
in the balance, never need a fortune teller
or manicurist to buff away calloused hands.
They are human pendulums who sway
to extremes with unflinching calm.
In their spare time, they are macramé specialists,
fishnet weavers, for risks are not what they take.
They are metronomes of predictability,
understanding a dismount is not a fall,
the lure is in a fall that never happens,
unlike what you would like to believe,
unlike the ringmaster with a whip about
to place his head in the jaws of a tiger,
itself unbelievable, when what you believe
would never happen, does.
Interpretive Dance
The assigned monks of leap year liturgy.
The Sisters of Minutia and the Mundane.
The Patron Saint of Forgettable Experiences.
Curious roles bestowed upon the faithful
that a future clan of scribes will find hard
to interpret to modern practice, given the dense
marginalia about being bored, calloused
with their calling, reading their caffeinated
hubbub and trivialities that took place
in cramped quarters of the corner café
until happy hour rolled around and for which
there are no notes.
Thad DeVassie is from Columbus, Ohio. He is the author of three chapbooks including Splendid Irrationalities that won the James Tate Poetry Prize in 2020 and was subsequently published by SurVision Books.
