Bob Heman


from INFORMATION

INFORMATION

The barn can be entered with sticks. The cow has lost its sense of balance. Once the chickens are counted they must be counted again. Afterwards the farmer is moved to a different location.




INFORMATION

Opens the room like a book, like a woman’s shoe, like a fist full of stars or snails or chocolate.




INFORMATION

The bears were broken. The elephant was made to float. Their clothes were not costumes, even though they were.




INFORMATION

Looks into the mirror because it has a face like her own.




INFORMATION

What they saw or thought they saw in the room that was removed from their sight was not what the others saw before it was removed.




INFORMATION

The men unloading the coal were left over from the previous story. The bears were repeated only because they were needed. Each time the woman spoke she sounded more discouraged. The music was only what was left over.




INFORMATION

They couldn’t remove the bear that was stuck to the tiles. They couldn’t remove the woman whose hair had grown too long. They couldn’t remove the fence that separated good and evil. They couldn’t remove the word that showed the others where they had gone.




INFORMATION

The bear had the wrong kind of ears. The woman laughed at the clock each time she saw it. Whenever the sequence was repeated it was changed. They stored the distance at a distance so they could use it later. Sometimes someone else found it first.




INFORMATION

One sleeps because she is told to. Another because she has to. The bears that guide them through their dreams have lanterns to show the way. The barn they reach is no more than an explanation.




INFORMATION

The animal talks because it is expected to, even though it has no language of its own. This is how the path is made. They must follow it if they ever expect to return.




INFORMATION

Listens because there are words inside of the sound. Watches because not all of the doors are closed. Sings because there are women in the forest. Touches the trees because they are alive.




INFORMATION

The dead walk because they were told to.




INFORMATION

There were trains shaped like bears and cars shaped like bears and houses shaped like bears and machines shaped like bears and owls shaped like bears and rivers shaped like bears and even a door that was shaped like a bear that was sleeping.




INFORMATION

The time broken into bits so they all can use it. The man moving in the same way the mountains move. The platforms were located in an adjoining state. They had to wait there for far too long.




INFORMATION

The murder of a cow by two bears. The murder of the princess by her mother.

Bob Heman’s “Information” pieces have been published in numerous journals including Sentence, Caliban online, Otoliths, Mad Hatters’ Review, Skidrow Penthouse, Lost and Found Times, Key Satch(el), Right Hand Pointing, Clockwise Cat, and Press 1. A small collection, Recent Information, was published as a special issue of Fell Swoop. Information pieces are included in An Introduction to the Prose Poem (Firewheel Editions, 2009), in the event books for the annual Brevitas reading, and in two small brochures from Red Pagoda Press. He lives in Brooklyn.
 
 
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