Ed Go


you gave me a green

& i put it on the table     stuck on it a label
in the morning it was there still sitting on 
the table          i couldn’t confuse it since 
it had a label meant for differentiating
eliminating confusion
               i don’t want a green sitting on 
my table but there’s no other place for it 
to sit except the table
               i could put it in the microwave but then
i’d have to move the pink & i don’t want to move 
the pink so i’m going to leave the pink & green & go
somewhere where i won’t  have to think about 
the pink              or the yellow                or the green
               maybe the exposition
                              on thursday next october



you gave me a blue

& i put it in my pocket
later at home i put it on 
the table went to bed & in
the morning the blue was on 
the table & then i took it
to work where it sat
on my desk until evening—

sometimes i put the blue in the freezer
& sometimes i put it in the microwave
& sometimes i put it in the backseat
               of a 74 stingray but mostly the blue
just sits on a shelf of my bookshelf
     between moby dick & emma
          above joyce & below sontag 

               & one time i put the blue between 
my thighs so it was touching the spot
between my scrotum & anus
that tender spot that makes you go
                              yes thats the spot right there
     theres nothing like this blue from you 
nothing but a memory
     & a hope & a dream & a blue



you gave me a fuchsia

& what the hell’s a fuchsia so
i put it on the nightstand & 
in the morning it was still on 
the nightstand & stank so
               i moved it to the table 

then i took the pork you baked & 
put it on the table & placed upon 
               the fuchsia’s fore
a piece of broken milkshake

i never really liked the other
portions that you gave me
but i always was taught to say 
   thankyouplease—yourewelcome

my mother taught me that & also
answered all my questions
like what is that thing that hangs between 
               the center & the column
why is that thing that springs
from deep inside the toeport
               & who is him what makes a map
               we followed with our fingers
     & when was where when here was
there & when was in its blossom 



things themselves

not a concept nor an ode
neither knock nor tinge
green like moss or gold like gold
   hinge with crooked smile

flank of column to the left
armor on the doorstep
sleeping dowager thunderthick
   wood triangle doorstop

can of metal bowl of soup
ramen in the nostril
noodle in the belly now
   long as small intestine

plastic form round rock stone
river creek & brook
loam & plush or corporate logo
   ocean lake & kneecap

needles on the pavement summer
cracks along the cement
word as dust or word as cloudpuff
   breath upon the railing

last a piece a nape a neck an
orange in the coatrack
onion peelings parchment orifice
   writing stick of celery

candles flame point dovetail flicker
orgy as if unction
ore as if an ape or angst
   or clutch with loose phalange 

Ed Go is a Chinese-Filipino-Portuguese-English-Scottish-Irish American writer raised in Massachusetts, Virginia, Alaska, Hawaii and Connecticut. A former video store clerk, school bus driver, CDL driving instructor, garbage truck driver, exterminator, phone book deliverer, mystery shopper, and lead singer/guitar-player in a punk-folk band, Ed Go currently lives and works as a teacher in Brooklyn, NY. His writings have been published in various online and print journals and anthologies, and his chapbook Deleted Scenes from the Autobiography of Ed Go as told by Napoleon Id was published in 2014 by Other Rooms Press, and “new machines,” a sequence of twenty-one prose poems in the anthology Urgent Bards in 2016 by Urbantgarde Press.

 
 

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