The Body Is a Big Place

Is it becoming a grass armchair? A black wall? A crying mirror? Does it portage like French trappers on the Red Cedar? Does it rattle like the Earth wrapped in sunset? Don’t worry, sugar can help if you have problems with shaking or trembling. Sex is also a great form of exercise. Yeah, every day. And it doesn’t require a lot of foreknowledge. Everything flows. Velocity is advancing everywhere. We see the glare of phones being checked, e-mails being sent. That’s not going to change. We see burning embers falling. I should close my eyes. I really should. But, instead, we all go, “Wow.”

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Golden Minutes

When there’s blood and fire all around you, that’s war. I’ll be lucky if I see one of my house’s walls still standing. Looking all the way down to the bottom, it’s nighttime and deep. That debris is strange stuff. You can see the skeleton of the colonization. And I think that that is just as valuable as the person in the photograph. The roads are packed with bystanders and cars. I’ve got to wear this crushed velvet hat. Really, what we’re talking about is the golden minutes. It’s not the same as a normal night of sleep. The people shine.

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Howie Good is the author of The Loser’s Guide to Street Fighting, winner of the 2017 Lorien Prize and forthcoming from Thoughtcrime Press, and Dangerous Acts Starring Unstable Elements, winner of the 2015 Press Americana Prize for Poetry.