Materiel for Poets

Photo by James Adams on Unsplash
Materiel for Poets

I want to…
crack open your earlobes
your earholes
your eye holes
to see you with my fingertips
to feel your breathing (berating?) pulse
under the heel of my hand
the derive the sum of ourselves
yes to be one two or even three
parts of the universal disharmony.
to bring us into the same patch of chaos.

I want to scrawl in chalk
on your sidewalk
to protest
to plead
to remember that we
you and me
make up the small army of our dreams.

mine is a martial art
hand to hand combat.
I use the weight of your (in)experience
place my hip under your expectations
reach over your apology
and grasp your smallest secrets.
I will twist,
leverage
you up into the air—into the ether—into your own self.
a self that you no longer recognize
as I have turned it 90?
to its usual orientation
and while you are slightly dizzy
I offer you a new way of looking in a
funhouse mirror.
if this trick works
you will never see true north again.
I will have disarmed you
and provided you with
a new weapon
a changed weapon
a sonic grenade
pull the pin
crack open your head.

Published on The Laundry Line, July 15, 2025.
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