Bob Heman


from INFORMATION

INFORMATION

The brain can be removed without affecting the tree.



INFORMATION

Each machine given a number so that it can be differentiated. The sun also removed from the room. What they thought was color was only a distortion. What they thought was a bear was only a gate.



INFORMATION

What is eaten not what is seen not what is repeated not what is described not what the others have removed from the story.



INFORMATION

Four of them means that one is extra.



INFORMATION

The string wound too tightly around the woman, around the brick, around the tree. The string stretched too long between the two cans. The string cut in pieces the birds can carry away



INFORMATION

No longer than or shaped like it was supposed to be. His circumference filled with distance that was not his own. The bears were what he was supposed to remember even though he had never seen them.



INFORMATION

When they are made of wood they move more slowly. When they are made of metal the rain does not sink in. When they are made of dirt their surface constantly changes. When they are made of fire they cannot be touched.



INFORMATION

He uses a word or if that does not work then a small picture that shows only their destination. If there are two of them then sometimes they are both women. The trees are the only windows they know how to use.



INFORMATION

The map folded so that it covers the man so that it hides the forest so that it protects the air. The map folded so that it becomes the only shadow that they need.



INFORMATION

Imagines that the city will be different that the woman will be different that the doors will open differently each time. The map shows the bears only if they do not move.



INFORMATION

If it is water or a pair of stones or a bird made of sticks or an eye that was removed so that it could see better. If it was a hat that was replaced with flowers or a car covered with bees or a man who was sewn shut. If it was a woman only when a woman was needed. If it was always raining once the house was broken.



INFORMATION

They count butterflies because there are no barrels.



INFORMATION

There are doors, of course, but not where they’re supposed to be. The bear has one, and the tree, and the rock in the middle of the forest. Even the serpent has one, but she’s not supposed to let anyone see.



INFORMATION

The day is half.



INFORMATION

A couple of clowns with bicycles get on at the third stop. On the map only the second door was shown. The first man was counted twice.

Bob Heman edits CLWN WR. His “Information" pieces have appeared in many publications including Caliban online, Sentence, Otoliths, Right Hand Pointing, Mad Hatters' Review, Ditch, Fell Swoop, and Clockwise Cat, and are included in the 2009 anthology, An Introduction to the Prose Poem, published by Firewheel Editions. Two collections of his earlier prose poems are available as free downloads from Quale Press.
 
 
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