Bob Heman


from INFORMATION

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Opened the door or tree or animal where the light lived and stepped into it and slept or traveled there, their hair or scales or leaves becoming different so they could match or suddenly become differentiated from all that history had showed them.



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A number written on the wall changes the wall. The light in the forest cannot be altered without altering the forest. A bird may consist of a single sound that cannot be located. My own existence there always only implied.



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There is a sophistication that opens doors where no doors are. There is a fear that inhabits each machine before it is turned on.



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The exception was exceptional. The man was well-mannered. The door they removed made no difference. They were all women in another life.



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She walks ahead of him into the room, the strap dangling from her hand. Sometimes he forgets the room. That is when she must remind him again.



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The door remembered because it was never opened. The window remembered because it was never closed. The man remembered because he never stopped walking. The woman remembered because she never left her chair. She was waiting for the clouds to return to the room. She thought it had happened once before.



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Remembers the desire even when it is desired no longer. The woman complete enough. Her birds always approached with caution.



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The bird a hand that is repeated. The man a tree that is forced to bend. When the river returns it is made of flowers. When the moon emerges they cannot hold it down.



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Enters the same building day after day. Wears the clothes that were laid out for him. Speaks the words that were scripted in advance. His desires only those that are ordinarily allowed.



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The door one of four that was placed inside. The windows full of sky even before they are installed. Each of them with a floor that is their own. Each of them assuming a ceiling that has not yet arrived.

Bob Heman's prose poems have appeared in numerous publications including Sentence, Paragraph, Quick Fiction, First Intensity, The Prose Poem: An International Journal, Caliban, Artful Dodge, Mad Hatter’s Review, key satch(el), and Lost & Found Times. They have been translated into Arabic, Spanish and Hungarian. His most recent collection, Demographics, or, The Hats They Are Allowed to Wear, has just been posted as a free download e-book at Quale Press. Other recent collections include Cone Investigates (2007, Poets Wear Prada), Recent Information (2007, Fell Swoop), How It All Began (2007, Quale Press) and twenty-one pieces of information (2007). He has edited CLWN WR (formerly Clown War) since 1971 and during the late 1970s was an artist-in-residence at The Brooklyn Museum.

 
 
 
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