Caleb Puckett

Gallery

body, dissolve 
          in 
body, dissolve 
in body 

the taste
of eyes,
           eyes
           blinking 
such a mysterious 
            smile below

plate of attribution,
arm covers chest,
           the concealed 
treasure

            legs cross,
            uncross,
conjure echoes
on the cold floor

a crime,
           this crying
shame
snaking its path
           home
       
rogue’s gallery,
          Christie’s catalog,
          sign of four 
          seeming to say

a worn wooden haft,
          prick of blade,
          shape made in
high relief

         art’s
the aftertaste,
memory
         the pedestal

peace a distant
pulse
         under sheets
of whitest cotton

odd, 
        the ongoing admission
of strange company,
        the witness
of metaphysical
conceit



Procession

Generational speech
                sprung
     in a dim lot

service terms

before the dam 
   broke,
before the bar’s salute

     dinner’s silver nod

snaking mirrors,
   queening hearts

     & those shovels 
          sold by suits 

gilded by rain,
mud-caked
                birthdays
      bygone
in 8 mm 

birds 
flare 
     in the steps 
                               back

          shadow witnesses,
real
for the insects

bleeding not in silk

but the desert under 
                               heel,
the desert 
hell
  in blue brilliance

remember to recall well
  the features

by February 
                the issue must slip—

to 
settle the living will
        into 
  a series 
of last regrets

que pasa?
                quelled
   
the same sepia tone  
     awarded purple
from the toiling 
custom 

  but somehow
                               free
in the offing of

yet omnivorous intimations
          keep 
   those stones coming 

                beyond an us

the urgency of finery,
                metallic finality
   in speech patterns 
beating back from caliche

The busy might curse
                the slow
in passing

& the short of it—
  how many returns
  show
themselves mercies?

Caleb Puckett is the author of Tales from the Hinterland, Market Street Exit and Fate Lines/ Desire Lines. Some of his recent writing has appeared in mgversion2>datura and Rasputin. In addition to writing, Puckett edits the literary journal Futures Trading.
 
 
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