Steve Dalachinsky

water creatures


kissing even the sweat 
lest we forget
we are come from
water creatures
still asiding ans
le terre   -              it’s about  gain &
loss                              the way calligraphy relays a 
              message                         displays
repeats
                 a hooping jump
a stone skipping along the surface
                                                            I   a flesh  & stone  &   cloth

         it is like getting     squeezing   
                                                           lacing the lining dry 
     cleansing       laundering
                      altering the hairline
             the bark of the chicken hawk
             the limitless returns
             fresh-tailed   buzzers
                water creatures    
                      it is 
                              licking                            leaners       gleaners
chewing   swallowing -         even the sand that pastes our lips      shut!

what planet is this?
how do we reference ourselves?
where is this point of no return?
pared down fragments……
how is it we are walking so flatly on this round world?
                       empty sphere?
  unloading . .
                             
                            this is a planet of hurricanes
                            a time of decency & descent
                            when only the less then holy will survive –
                            walking this wet world filled w/thirst
                             
                            clear world
                            blue world
                            brilliant decoy.

 

army (for m.j.) 

sowing out of time
the duck 
a quack if ever
drained of its etoms
a lol ogy gone wild
in these tamed waters

tired from pulling the levers in his sleep
a young swan
beds down for the night
the choice he bet on still
a bet away

each season is out of
place this
grain like the two lips in the movie
tonight that weren't yours

other creatures are fed by the keeper's
hand tho the keeper acts like other creatures
born here to this pond 
a LAGOON  more like it
unmasked the mask worn as the mask is
worn   frayed about the edges
the ties that bind it to the 
skin

within reason  the carbon hark 
dying beast & this love 
a jagged rock at the edge of water
speaks of extinction as only a "solid" can

army follows army
into the waiting stench
the coming growth
army wading thru feed toward
the  SAG -   

parm la lazit prasm opti- aut a bout

gone round again & 
round a n  other cycle
unpleated
 


c.b. 1

cour/core
mad cold rope
had the chills the other morning
changed notes floating
within its valued veil

i am amidst a wilted cry of  all ages
a million prayers of dreaded dirt
inside the  outher
cared for like a book

i live like any other particle
within moments
lost
no matter how concrete I be
no matter
found & named

bottled up
jailed by freedom
sentenced to life
manacled to the dopey tide
blind sighted
ruined & filled w/holes

a thirsty moving river
a sad quilted emptiness
trapped w/in a manual of  HOW TO
trapped w/in the NOW



c.b.2

still hand
pickled / or creamed
pinkish hand
miserably mistaken for a fish
soaring w/in fluids
of ending oceans

said   helpful   rather    (sores)
than difficult inflicted breaths
long     hot    it is about    water

the creature that water is



c.b.3

long term memories
begin anew within the stream
where field resides
co(m)ma  ~  murderer
slibs closed glorious
pungent oil spills  muffled by craters
rich in torture & racso
lies pressed    i dent & drown
by………



c.b.4

all left a frozen twaddle
pelican sealed in its own ice
lit & built up like a wall of wetness
arms pickled w/what the laborer does w/ his
labor
how important his tools must be

plumbing
pipes
drain
toilet
stopped up

                  nyc – partial scramble of Charles Bernstein poems 

Steve Dalachinsky: DREAM BOOK

Note: water creatures was written in n.y. in 2004 and published as a chapbook by s press.
 
 
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