ALL OF THE ABOVE
I.
most traps to fear occur off the beaten path
each translucently arranged by far away starlight
somewhere
within the filament
mentions of a being curious
and bold
fearful of the future
clutching an astronomical blueprinted
II.
June’s wide mouth this year drools
with gloom agape
poorly nursed
drones and fuss shave trees with acute thunder
above ghettos
now the late maple tridents dream of what drove them over
in sheets of troubled earth
in the quakes
mentions of a cop city
the breath of the mountain is filled with gossip
the abyss reads the stone’s disbelief
like scripture
Question 1 :
Who drove June to sing?
(A) The wailing of children
(B) The wailing of the stars
(C) Sirens in the streets
(D ) Fire in the mountains
Question 2:
Where does the narrator lay low when they return carting cords and cords of fallen maple?
(A) Within June’s godawful mouth
(B) Along the ley-lines
(C) Here, where the trees fell
(D) There, where the sirens are inaudible
III.
a jovial app-ending happens
loosening her exasperated id
smearing
liquid vinyl noise
spills spells
like the stripes in the tee shirt
you poke your head through
kidding
furiously kidding about being alright and saved
at the same time
Do you trust this narrator?
(A) Yes
(B) It doesn't matter
she forgives all but doesn’t forget looking around for eyes in a sea of stained windows pretty and not moving
Pretty and motionless?
(A) not everyone looks
(B) for some the glass barks with thanks and originality
criminally easy is a life of being her but choosing
choosing
choosing
while lacking inspiration
she calls in pews of company
and prayer dramatic longform
and yet the godawful
pause
be easy
pause
pause
be easy
sleep
persistent personalization
“let’s have the blood of life next
that blood which doesn’t stop for a few hours”
Question 3:
What is a fitting title?
(A) Hark
(B) I’ll have what she’s having
(C) Third Poem
(D) all of the above
Question 4:
When is it appropriate to pray? And how?
(A) In your hometown, vigorously
(B) In a foreign town, quietly
(C) In a faraway land, to be heard by others
(D) Never
I smoke when I’m alone
or when I want to be
Question 5:
Why do you smoke?
(A) I am a snob
(B) It's cool
(C) “Get a warrant!”
(D) I enjoy this song so much that I prefer smoke to air
I never know
how far to stand from the center of snobbery
nightful bay sunk in the fog of a terse
bass of a man
who makes the smoke sing
closer
Question 5 con’t:
Why are we here?
(A) I am a snob
(B) It's cool
(C) Thoughts of him and the things he says to get me to look
(D) I enjoy this song so much, I am touching myself on the inside
fingering the stars
when you can feel them there
extends the night into near-madness
you just point up with your gaze and it enters you
Adulthood? (y/n)
Nietzsche? (y/n)
someone close to you is drying up and knows better
schools of others are behind them the night can be so cruel at its nadir
even deadly
when you find yourself
at the center of this bog
some songs will escape forever through the mouth
like echoing windstain
something else should replace them
to balm passages interchangeably
Question 6:
What balms?
(A) The Call of the Bottle
(B) The Blood of Tree Fruit
(C) Thoughts of Him
(D) Birdsong
stupidity (or) clairvoyance
stupidity and clairvoyance
El Capitan morning articulating
with the sun
and the near untouchable water
stupidity (and) clairvoyance
skid across my upper body
pricking me without love
only real contact-trouble has its way
with wanderers
not to subscribe but
I am filled with zeal towards
awayness
exploring my inner archive through true
primordial abstraction I hope to break open
and reveal phenomenally the geist (which is incorporeal)
to give it sun and to tick
away at this paved and printed
Real
using our bare skin against us the sun reminds
that we all return to Mother
as if by magnet
in the shapes we learn first
as sticks and spheres
I hope to burn again (per the plan)
evening articulates to absence
(red turns into black)
Question 7:
Zeal?
(A) Nearly concludes the alphabet
(B) In a foreign town goes unnoticed
(C) Soaks me
(D) Meh
8 minutes
sex with me so inescapable and welcomed
let you in come
let then let out then let go
pinned down dunce capped Pierrot
pushes one foot behind my food
leaves the fridge on likes the sounds it makes
desperate to be closed
sex with me so refrigerated around me a forceful breath from cold quivering lips
asks and doesn’t ask again when you answer
(B) It doesn't matter
I must close the sticky door myself
pinned to the wall by the wing feeling your eyes miss the stairs as you leave
crisp air as you trail from door to hall to staircase
running
running to keep cool
running out of welcome
Question 8:
Repeat?
(A) yes
(A) but different.
(A) 8 Minutes of
Time Out for Pierrot (and other perverts)
sex with me so inescapable so welcome
let you in come
let then let out then let go
* enter pinned down dunce capped Pierrot *
pushing one foot behind my food
leaving the fridge on out of love
for beeping
for desperation to be closed
for song
sex with me so refrigerated everlasting embalm-able
as if surrounding me a forceful breath from quivering lips
asks and tells
asks again when it tells me to ask it
does it matter
doesn't it
one must close the sticky door oneself
with sex so cold it makes no sound
says Pierrot from the corner
forgiving his frown
pinned to the wall by the wing filling his eyes welling with stairs
Pierrot dashes flecks of cereal and minutia
to leave
crisp air trailing
door to hall to staircase
running
running to keep cool perhaps
running out of welcome
sex and minutia
sex left behind left behind
sex right in front right beside
mouth vibrating with birdsong treble
breathing out ocean salt
godawful ghastliness and howls
to be blotted by tongue
slippery-thoughts
born from friction
like moths born from starch crave erodible sweetness
and infest reserves of sanity within him
Sex without thought only
Sex with out
till the libido team with lies and images
which poison his lusts against him
he does his time hard
and in the dark
like a worm
Question 9:
What did the narrator say in the end?
(A) Love is a symptom of time
(B) Time is a symptom of love
(C) Love and time are the same
(D) Love and time are opposites
Question 10:
What did she forget when she saw you?
(A) Sex and Minutia
(B) Just Sex
(C) Just Minutia
(D) all of the above
the devil is 6, god is 7
what muttered prayer below the lung
dare you intone when
dwelling extra long
slipping from time isn't being but
a mutation asking
should it matter to the default overture in us
in us is a singular timeless hour
like a prayer apace while the lung dares
daring we think extra long about which seeds to sow next spring
have you ever made a dream from dirt? (y/n)
have you ever blotted the mutation from your eyes and ears with a knitted sleeve
gently overthinking two hard ways
of defaulting in overture? (y/n)
us kneading tea into dream-bread
knitting tears into sleeves
Question 11:
How often do you dream of me and other simpler broken seeds?
(A) Sometimes
(B) Seeds only break from the inside
(C) Thoughts of him
(D) all of the above
would you default to killing the mutated dream-idler below the lung
bearing breads on her sleeves
feeding dirt her eyes and ears? (y/n)
is this just another singular timeless hour blotted too soon
before the daring spring? (y/n)
Yves B. Golden is an artist and writer based in Los Angeles. She is the Feminist Center for Creative Work’s 2024 artist-in-residence and her upcoming collection of poetry, prose, and essays will be published by Tabloid Press (DE) and La Escocesa (ESP). She is calling all angels and envisioning a Free Palestine, a Free Congo, and a Free Haiti in her lifetime.