Joel Chace


awful table


.      getting bent in front of the

hearth /anyway better

than giving a goddamn after

dinner speech        possession

can truly shake you although

it’s hard not to admire

something that does        expected

another stone critter /not one

displaying scars from earlier combats /

he stoops to wrong her but is

far too badly warped      .



cheat sheet


.      windy identification lyric ending

as predator chews        pain

misfiring outside the post office /

noted that their levitating

rabbi did wear fewer clothes /

assurance of thunder’s

perseverance / of heartbeat’s

awful tracking / of

rebalanced sine waves

dedicating less      .



return engagement


.      so what if doctrines

grow flirtatious / one man’s

fetish / another’s investment /

splattered with admirable

behavior every bit as

miserable with cheaper

booze / civilian glances /

more intimate puzzlings /

something needs be

dropped / might as well

be Latin or creamier

harassments of the

good-intentioned sort        hey/

do that moan again      .



pacing


.      swallows / ceremonial / rueful /

burnished        argument that

those mountain ranges of

magic numbers are internal /

not now / Cato / you

fool / later / Catullus /

you tool        vain / distraught

transitions not necessarily

the end but good enough for

dieting or jazz        please don’t

talk about the heart

when it’s gone      .



topless


.      after cleansing of smelly

eaves / the musical interval

clinched it        and of course

their unwillingness to destroy

empathetic expressions or

levelheaded overtures or notes

of dismay        one man’s

indisposition’s another’s

lechery / you say opera /

and I say ogle        struck

once too often by

a leading edge      .



sufficiency


.      devil of regret and uniformity /

square dancing on stalks in

golden alien light        ask

the family surgeon in / you’ll

see embrace of electioneering

follows like a run

of civility or hopeless chits /

that decision to abandon

everything unknown        sewer

odors / resistance corrugated /

narrative squeezing until it hurts      .



missing limb


.      silence began to

wear on the princess         all runners

advanced despite their

knees / despite the weeds /

realignment /erotic / terse /

terminal / fools refused

to tread         how that field could

be so sweetly anecdotal /

whole ballet taking a

wrong turn        the radio

calling it victory / not fear      .



Joel Chace has published poetry and prose poetry in print and electronic magazines such as 6ix, Tomorrow, Lost and Found Times,Coracle, xStream, Three Candles, 2River View, Joey & the Black Boots, Recursive Angel and Veer. He has published more than a dozen print and electronic collections. Forthcoming from BlazeVox Books is CLEANING THE MIRROR: SELECTED AND NEW POEMS, and from Paper Kite Press MATTER NO MATTER. He is a NEH Fellow. For many years, Chace has been Poetry Editor for the experimental electronic magazine 5_Trope.

 
 
 
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