Scott MacLeod


Ten Improvised Extractions

CERTAIN DEAF

everywhere in the middle
of gripping opticals falling
by the tap, dippers clipping
the leash, it is July, after all
time to taste your own
knife smell fish table

reading behind the sack
getting hard, getting so hard

even now you thin as a sail
flat as a harp with the lights on
variable, voracious, radiant, immune

7/17/21

[1 of 9 from I Remember Petroleum by Jim Leftwich, Luna Bisonte Press 2019]

 

TIRED OF SLEEPING

sitting up older than Lazarus
barking, without a shoe
shivering, flatulent, crooked
like the goddam dog moved
to West Virginia, flocks and socks
just hand me what’s in your hand

7/17/21

[2 of 9 from I Remember Petroleum]

 

COLD RIDGE

all things flocking, regulatory
grabbing onto it, whatever you want
it’s a bandaid, habitual
it drips redistributed heteronyms

7/18/21

[3 of 9 from I Remember Petroleum]

 

WACHT AM STYX

our waves, out of Egypt
reverberating, cogless, backlit
offered to the grinding yacht
fleeing the change, hijinks
gumming up barter economies

if this is a poem look inside
barbarian vibrations through mad streets
jump on, howling, let’s balloon
across the river, coaxe the hoax
play the part Saturday night forever

7/18/21

[4 of 9 from I Remember Petroleum]

 

I WOULD DO ANYTHING FOR LOVE

drifting ourselves half-moon
non sequited love, no trampolines
legs under you, like a bike stand
snaps, rusting, haul the caul

you in your fifties, holding out
(maybe)

think of how I feel
and so on and so on omg my withering
(nothing will come of it)
(nothing)

7/18/21

[5 of 9 from I Remember Petroleum]

 

ALMOST GOT IT

adjust the wreckage, blur the grammar
piano cries, discipline, nearly human
do you mean “good”? or just “dead”?
or just digging in the snowbank
looking for lifeguards?

this time you should think smaller
what’s that word? blarbrbrotitblorblr?
what the Hell?

I need to stop reading this
drivers behind me in traffic raging mad
the light’s green, but I just sit there
thinking why do they call it a STOP light?

there’s an urge in each if us
(okay, there’s an urge in me)

grinning idiot like
that was my first time
dizzied, stupid, jejeune
pseudo-fictional
empty, even

7/18/21

[6 of 9 from I Remember Petroleum]

 

ON THE MOON

stereo-typing with both hands
we have a lewd crew in the sea-office
brusque consequences sparked by charm
nuanced global capital strategies
yum yum yum

7/17/21

[7 of 9 from I Remember Petroleum]

 

WRONG SCENE

I’m just limbering up

well if we contain every incomplete
stick the fire requires, every sacred
misconception, every grab bag
left in the back of a taxicab, every
bounced rent check, every lost sock

well maybe it is rigged, or maybe
we’re rigged, maybe all the answers
are right here under and up my nose

7/18/21

[8 of 9 from I Remember Petroleum]

 

IN CREDIBLE WORDS

weight remains, devalued
curious, in the middle of…

reset

…highway Jesus beauty surely
agaric azure bringing it all home
eaten by the… window, shady
grifters, ghouls, cutting off the roof
pouring jello on the fire
hearts adjacent quenched

reset

…wounds and warnings
broken eye, jolt to the teeth
vacation up the nose, driving
right through the thunder

reset

reset

all I ever wanted was a swim
a seven a.m. full of midnight
feeling, I don’t know, indecisive
maybe, fleeting, out of time
all I ever wanted is a
reset


7/18/21

[9 of 9 from I Remember Petroleum]



POLISE

men in gold
corpse offscreen
snake, pigeons
a political system

sciattica!! sciattica!!

a force comes near
waiting for the rest of me
I’m not surprised
the state runs over
my hilarity

7/17/21

[from printmag PLOISE, (author unknown to me), noice publishing]

Scott MacLeod lives in the shadow of Valley of Fear, Pennsylvania. All of his recent efforts have come to naught.

 
 

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