Tuesday poem #474 : Daniel Owen : BAD AT EXAMPLES

 

 

 

nothing so
sure as the
world on the
wind. where the empty
square that
confirms the box
checks out when
who could be
inside. spills
a little nyc all
over it like a photo.
kept arguing
with itself over
coordinates.
a break
right?
fallen world stuff
with such
belabored grace.
the great rind they
call it, take a lick and
shudder all sinful,
etcetera, lists. can
you hear
the technology
of the cigarette draining
out the voice
the late city's
record.
like anyone
else you lurch
through some
kind of innocence or
backyard impossible
in a rock
'n roll fantasy.
as anyone's supposed
to go. the moon
honeyed to a nail in
the sky all
us or dust please

 

 

 

Daniel Owen's recent publications are Celingak-Celinguk (Tan Kinira, 2021), Up in the Empty Ferries (Third Floor Apartment Press, 2021), and Points of Amperture (dos-à-dos chapbook with Jennifer Soong's When I Ask My Friend, DoubleCross Press, 2021). His translations from Indonesian include Afrizal Malna’s Document Shredding Museum (Reading Sideways Press, 2019) and poems by Malna and Farhanah published in various journals and magazines. Recent writing and translations have appeared in Circumference, Asphalte, Columbia Journal, and The Poetry Project Newsletter. He edits and designs books and participates in many processes of the Ugly Duckling Presse editorial collective. 

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan