John M. Bennett


Dead Book

the bloodsoaked pages burning on the
steps rotting flowers stapled feathers
floating in charred bowl
my shifting lengua
wall drool
pinta
mice
quivering ash
my blackened pants
green stones in pockets
morning fog smiles in street
empty spine crumpled in the gutter


Book Opening

liverwurst smeared on the shiny phone
I talked into the coffeecan
my words reversed you
tumbled in corn
rabbit breath
bark
my shirty neck is pawed away
the cloud escapes my mouth
stiffened loaf in cave
floating suit
a chapter
sighs

Amantli Oztotl

the shorter lamplight Ö hand snore
blowing cheese Ö folded in temictli
in ayahuitl cuitlatl Ö eye slave
booming thumb Ö drips with flood
five cave ears Ö plunging fork
amantli blood Ö in suited face
tumbled gun open Ö xipexochitl drawer
ladder fountain Ö stinging mice beer
ringing in switch Ö stepping lung
aztli wallet Ö in bulb sandwich
coton alaxtli Ö shimmering in skin


Away With It

mile and done and snotty key and
hoot and dope and shiny finger
shaping what your ear spouting
frenchfry comb and blood and itchy
lens and toweled grease sink knots
beneath the mattress where a nickel
grunts remembers all the ,\\\\.////////////
pustules of your throat you said the
loot .the blotched wall opens next
your head a condensation of the month the
mouth that sold the time .smile and
run !


be ... ach

sand uh ... lung bit ... double
dust ... my ... lip blood ,user ...
the key the ... belt sunk ,it
ch ... raw slave un ,wrote heel ...
... straw sky ... shot splash ... my
mou ... th ... finally )open( ...
o pen ... your bre ... ath comes
... near ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... ... .. . .


The Hose Hosed

needles hotter shirt   O   crawled spoon
rugless tub   O   plaster wall runt
stool never fought   O   double run
its shimmer   O   your dawn lunger
apt to glisterine   O   wet deal
bag lipper   O   sleep or drain
what flag’s stuck   O   sleeve hidden
noose door   O   the nozzle cries


Up Up

duck smoke ≈ where the bit
sinks dog lamp ≈ thought rump
pour smile ≈ it was combinational
wreathed in lint ≈ mouth bridge
squalling watch ≈ the crunching moon
crack it off ≈ outlet mites
sparking air ≈ the watered steps


Tight Pants

my gristly thumb vein   ●   buttoned thru the skin
lumpy gland eye   ●   shovel nails   ●   saw the floating blood
plastic bottles   ●   bumping on the oars   ●   stung fish
my   ●   hand scratching in the cloudy wake   ●   rope
●   sticky where my shorts crawling through my crotch   ●  
rope   ●   wakes cloudy in my scratching hand   ●   the
fish stung   ●   oars on the lumpy   ●   bottles plastic
blood floating the nails   ●   saw shovel   ●   eye gland lumpy
skin through the buttoned   ●   vein thumb my gristle


Gargles

gnat glancer bubbled in my throat a
crispy shadow in the file cabinet where
my tongue was greased .a lunch
thumbprint ,plates of moonlight sm
eared across the wall I cracked in
to out O aim my fog at you at
me’s a dropper in the flat pants
I never wore out’s ide ,the comb gut
blister ,piles and miles my sandy
thumper caved into the rotting
log )I spoke the spoke the water(


Sleep Book

font
spurting door
cow lung settled
fatter than dropping pie
my goggles opening in rain
reading under the thick red drip
plots
return inversed
the sky heaves
breadless throat’s final spelling
quarters buried on opened eyes
the sentence curling up your arms


Errata Book

gravel
broken bowl
the risen leaves
chest’s vacant light
turns toward the arch
the red stones creaking streaming
breaking through the lunch meat leak
sweaty sandwich sinking in the pool
your stunned spawn snore shelf
nest of beetles nest
of wet saltines
the extra
line

 
 
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