Jane Joritz-Nakagawa


The end zone

 

(i)

a package's function

to protect its space

why it is not empty

 

of all kinds

to suspend language

fatal course

 

precisely that of constructed

commerce of the sign

necessary commodities

 

afraid of the abundance

of stitches

how can i live with them

 

my senses heightened

expectations wilted

fragile diversions

 

grey day

three masks

one white two black

 

reduced systems of substance

disappearing acts

former relationships

 

touch me there

oh please

but there is nothing there

 

a shoring

beyond hope

made to order

 

drained and trembling

psychotic junction

twitches in my hand

 

magic bullet

(just as in the theater)

no news received

 

thought ends (mercifully)

fake panic

self inf(l)i(e)cted

 

loss, regret

(and then) gratitude

the horizon its own answer

 

in the alley where

mary jane slipped off

black cotton from china

 

murmuring figment

a chain of thoughts running through it

dead center

 

above my paygrade

a dissociative state

i've wa[i/s]ted my whole life

 

(ii)

            my hairy leg              hums

 

on a spit                     veins   　　open       onto a wilderness

 

            my tail                        cut       　　systemic

 

synthetic                    types of                      anesthetic hubris

 

            bleed              into     delicate grass            　　grabs

 

your synthetic heart             an era torn

 

            edge of           your body     　worn　as nature

 

arrested                      dismembers me        　to darken nature

 

            chill & shiver　　shrill          　emotional disfigurement

 

anthropocentric                    fracking impossible

 

(iii)

swing vote                             deliver my trance

empty muse                          my keloid sunset

survive shrinkage                mainstream void

ruptured solitude                blood of clients

broken warning signal        i ask without speaking

in my dungeon                     operation of symbols

(same on any universe)

 

my neighbor's laundry        waving at me

ancestral shape                     dear john letter

my paper thin body a wick on the head of Buddha

 

 

why were you half buried in sand why did you

come why were the lights off who is in the study

why the study how long was she there will it take

much longer for her to go did you wash your hands

were you the best lover you could be why did you take

that job when i told you not to why did i say that you

weren't even listening to me were you

 

anger blooming inside me

inhaling the world

godzilla wearing a surgical mask

will save us keenly

 

whirlwind of delusion

softly collapsing on itself

exquisite ravings of maniacs fix

the attention of a mechanical audience

 

majestic and swollen

gaudy companion

brief lexicon

volatile conglomerate

 

special identity

of voter suppression

dissects what it selects

 

natural fissures

a floating moment

detached in the partition

 

my reflection deleted

by an artificial lake

invisible data

treated as bacteria

neck of the woods     

narrow alleyway

distant bluebird

 

on a plate

in a frame

 

a tree hovering over

like an angry parent

on its side

like a fallen soldier

the sky playing

its music

Jane Joritz-Nakagawa’s tenth full-length poetry collection, Plan B Audio, was published in 2020 by Isobar Press. Other recent books include Poems: New and Selected (Isobar); <<terrain grammar>> (theenk Books), and, as editor, women : poetry : migration [an anthology] (also with theenk). Email is welcome at janejoritznakagawa(at)gmail(dot)com.

 
 

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