Jeff Harrison: My poetry has appeared in Nerve Lantern, Sentence, XStream, Moria, Poethia, VeRT, M.A.G., BlazeVox, Word for Word, Xerography, Blackbox, Masthead, Side Reality, canwehaveourballback, XPress(ed), Generator, Znine, A Chide's Alphabet, 5_Trope, The Dream People, Aught, Blackboard Project, Newtopia, and Great Works. My poetry is forthcoming from Gypsy, Kichen Sink, Pettycoat Relaxer, Cranky, and Nerve Lantern.

------

MOTH MONEY DECLARATION

collecting what's
bursting in on that comma
see - spidery sea
dear for warmth
& a puzzle not lacking
what's usually winked away
you'll remember my pulse
by its corners
by what's kept in the blink
fly, frog - Poor Time in
a part for all
largest stillest shadow
at last talking, officer
I twist apart small bodies
by the hour for a clue
flowers, I opined,
walk the storm down
their thorns are tonic
for the multitudes
what is face-down will
no longer get oil from me

------

INVENTION-SQUIRMS |WITH| |EACH| GIVE-AWAY

dead side harmful? harmful to
nothing that would Never my speaks
how many speaks?
the bats know the exact count
yes, you were right,
they're all fruitful long squirms
privileged pennies sporting
high-speed wristwatches
they've nearly exhausted
the purses of this Medium
yes, you were right,
they do right, porcelain blue speaks
with hardly a hint
of destructive sea lisp
yes, you were right,
keep your ear to the ground
like that Van Gogh clown
(his dusk my branches)
and you can hear them
practice long rules of clouds

------

SYLLABLE CRYPT

V was
thinking
in the letter V...
it's like
not having hands
it's like
crooners swoop
spooked ever
like schooners, like
waves of Vs are steps
for the stripped strays
like V-poetries are shines
for folded eyes
V stares the woods down
"The V disease vows constancy"
through a glass...
from nothing smile
"present vows half-open
had never been heard of"

------

POEM OF THE ROTTEN BOOK

fish of the rotten book
white an eye over
to them old pulled waves
balled up, they are,
thru scuzzy depths / two
dolls big bed Sunday
a nailing fist-first
swiveled sweat imagination,
still mine habits
art driftwood-draped
emptied head went away
like a Venusian waving gaily
out the spaceship window
goodbye, pearly goodbye,
old ghost father, without you
the sun's going spiders
these spiders ride with
their hearts stuck out like thumbs,
like tongues their hearts stuck out
Poe them to me
heartless as rotten books
slipping over them old pulled waves

------

VIRGINIA READING TO SLOT THE SCALES

again, four houses are
the amnesiac's home
her sheeted mouth
keeps her foot
out in the open
those drowned
in the houses'
four fountains
envy those with
better timing, I'm sure

------

THE LAMP OF FARAWAY OVERNIGHTS

in sleep it levitates
lamp? you'll get a floating one
impacted with laurel
the leaves, erupting, work
fluttering river the foam heats
continues to hand space to each year
see if this avalanche,
dazzling hot undisturbed continued,
is favored by anyone

------

ANYTHING ELSE, WE'D CALL THE SPRING

always listen --
who... where...
where iron scarred snow
aren't we almost
worn very ever clearly
how, but, might cause power
stick to books, sir, cease
your sparse answers
again we, sister, still aren't covered
sir, why that's sloppily tried, when you
threw your time into the speak of me
like you cotton to who winters me
what's genuine from all those trees
is nothing next to Virginia
I, sir, caught that lady baking me

------

THE SUN OF A THOUSAND NAMES

this to be called The Spoils Of War?
this takes a fast look around them to you?
exaggerated according to me exaggerated all!
Mouse Zero, the muzzle of which is insufficient,
gets down to the wing in a moment
you felt I appealed to this, two are many --
many beautifully like this Spoils Of War
what duty don't this I know?
you use Mouse Zero to return to us!
lovable very many, for me, looking for The Poet

this to be called Abyss Of The War?
and its surname? Harrison? will he make
a success of the position of Principal Mouse Zero?
does he like my clay/tone, as if love-worth was
a large number? I condemn your friend,
who locates observations, and not sincerely,
in order to create the position of Mouse Zero

he'll ridicule Mouse Zero in order to call this Hell Of War?
what is the surname of the lady? Smith? Jones?
Harrison the passed name, he writes it down with
wings of a little while! you are all the hybrid spoils!
this to buy you glances at them? you are all equal
and you are all bastard spoils! I come to an agreement
with all the folks I am! a conclusion full of lewd persons?

------

THE BEGGAR'S PETITION

"...why are you writing rare words?"
your psychic rights are dusted with gold
so you are not going to die soon,
as you used to think, R.H. Raven Toes,
for your dream of the stairs, remember?
under the stairs is a line of fire {black
ink on the moon} so the names of
the King are naked there, affording a
wide field for dungeons, but Virginia's
sister has nerves made of Christmas trees
she's an oncoming locomotive from the waist up
a mermaid from the waist down
she lives in Potter's Field {the terrors of Capitalism:
several secondary Liliths are homeless}

------

HAPPY HEAVY MILK

my milk made always cyber pounce
let's go see R.H. Raven Toes right now
selling short the reading newspaper
famous written joke: how to be news?
I'm past of yesterday, but of English open
yesterday we were to portrait Virginia
so find good in Virginia, R.H. Raven Toes
you claim happy heavy milk say Jefferson
today, please, is the other King Kong...
only will you remember? that time was heaven
captioned "Dream Pleasure Speaking Lamp"

------

ALL AT ONCE, NO VIRGINIA

beside dancing pleasure
is written, scrawled,
naked harsh apprehension
lyrics like a robber merchant
bones of translation,
hopelessly R.H. Raven Toes fleshes in
a tall robber-broken map day
long-buried Virginia now hopelessly naked

------

THE SPIDER'S SONNET TO THE MOON

how oft the flow'ret's
silken leaves conceal
a shroud's bauble
seated 'pon half her brow

tender still little moon,
ever believe we're your
own thirst run aground
tho your appetite's the wolf's

will she swallow the spider?
no, she'd rather the forgetful
wedding this scene anchors:

"Daughter of Idmon,
I'm a lazy housekeeper -
tho cornered, don't fret"

------

VIRGINIA AS THE ARSONIST'S DAUGHTER

strangled man
was the needle
found, fiery
minotaur house -
this is punish-stuff -
as ash, volumes
bend - & basic
their whistling,
mythological
their perfection,
this strangled man
accumulated what
your skull tatters,
his eyes aerial O
finally, who said
this is punish-stuff?

------

VIRGINIA AND THE 31 DUCKS

& Virginia &/or dark & seeping milk
& skies hurl hordes, & the life! &
seeping milk & slick insurgent years
&/or merely skittish & soaked
through &/or stripped & seeping milk
through & pass (& rake friends'
   rags apart) & Virginia? - her
   enemies' days are blotto too
   (in spots) & sleeve Time's
laws into your brain & the tendrils
& dwindled light & the public gobble
is a diversion & enough of these dead
& the shade on the wind & seeping milk
& raindrops underneath & unlucky pennies
trapped in odd blouses & red-hot cudgels
& wood ash lye & delicacies &/or Missouri
& airy desires are feathered less & drift
& languish afloat & "Play, seeping milk"

------

HERE OF TWICE DOG-EARED SHADOW

ears twice torn to beats
strip sound to the initial strip
the bang planes are no doubt
safe up on some branch
speed on, minor fan,
catch your horn on this graph,
map no words around
splinter color onto your old upstairs
blinks measure changes apart
and harp them to near-repair
those sweet doubles shop
those air tales have throats
to warm your crumbs, their
throats been bark-walking all week

------

50,000,000 WORMSWORK FANS CAN'T BE WRONG

the tall-parody crook
tells me his dog is one
of the central zeroes

*

WW breaks quills,
seems however
fabled flesh really

*

red ready read
cut with a gurgle
a back pile of puddles
cut with a gurgle

tub meat untended

*

who said a nightmare's

a sly kind of counterwish

*

still they continue -
referred to as A,B, & C
mumbo jumbo types

*

fanning
the surface / of carcasses
he's a good sort

*

greasiest,
his best,
hurricane
caught its breath

*

he did,
Delicacy,
wonder the work
at the other

*

with shame
a last leave
to waylay him

*

daylight.
witches.

*

WORMSWORK'S
MALLARMÉ goes

zero, spume
verge on yet,
stamnos, lemmings' wiles
toast w/out crust for
1. one
2. reef
3. star
4. for who folds
         the sheet

*

fresh decks of
several basic
interests

*

Wormswork
snatches up the broom
can't be! QUIZ:
what was his name?

*

did you know his loot
listens to me when he's laughing?
his poor little worried loot!

*

his impression
washed with
dark olive suggestion

*

Wormswork in the world?
disgusting!

Wormswork in the world?
for them!

*

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