Paul Siegell


*04.10.08 – Explosions in the Sky – The Trocadero, PA*

start slow. cinematic. three guitars, a set of drums.
gently out of bed.

they’ve draped the flag of Texas over a speaker.

some in the crowd are made to sway.

the sharpness of substance: to experience the act, a live
band alive, the realization of that which somehow enters.

c’mon, make me move.

the guitarist in the center switches out for a bass.

during the delicate, the two by his side reduce their size,
kneel to the stage, express their electrics upon their knees.

dramatic elaborations at play. and not a single lyric
would ever be sung.

why are you so good? a female fills from the balcony.

a song ascends. all three tall. the drummer ups the temperature.

a nearby guy ties his wrangler shirt around his waist.
a girl puts up her hair.

the traveling, picturesque and tragic attacked. now,
all in the crowd are made to rage—
                                                                            all three ax men raised

their right arms, and then bombarded: raw, repeated, syncopated
poundings down on their instruments to the rhythm of the piece.

something so rock. something I’d
never seen before.


*M/A/R/C/H F/O/U/R/T/H*

from 23 Bridle Path to the Painted Bride Quarterly

sign reads,
                                              Parking Lot
                                              Special $7
                                              Not overlight

s’like when you send the email, yet forget to attach the file

sorta

                styros, liters and plastic bagforks will awaken,
                dig out/dislodge/even levitate from the landfills
                and vanish in a blink from our responsibility

it’s
9 o’clo
ck

no they won’t

I’ll give it to you as soon as the CD burns

“Since that winter, the people who take care of the roads
have kept the salt domes bursting.”

on the eyelid island, there’s frost on the metaphor
about the detour of dinosaurs

enjoy the day

“Bacteria are by far the most active ice nuclei in nature.”

                I’ll be able to score RA D IOHE_AD tickets
                somewhere within the 11 or 12 seconds that they’re
                actually available the morning they go on sale

no I won’t

who knew that in 2008 snow could be so reassuring?

enjoy these days

                emission-free automobiles will run on compressed air alone
                and everything from then on will forever be less greasy

(can too) no they won’t

generae shun

feels like it should also say,

                                              We’ll take
                                              care of you

from the Walt Whitman Mall to the Walt Whitman Bridge

yes, but not until

                we’ll awkwardly awake in the theater thereafter,
                tubas’ll turn turbines into powerhouse sunflowers,
                soldiers will cease committing suicide, energy-savings
                spirals will squelch the Smokestack of Liberty

and the markets will surge at open—no they won’t—every morning
the American flag is raised

                                                                            After we unW


 
 
 
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