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8 CONSTELLATIONS
byAndrew Brenza
Beard of Bees PressNumber 119 · October, 2017
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Sagitta * you slip through my attention infinite mass like water
through fissures of light only the dampness of your passage stays *
* april shadows like sad rows * of shad roe in a fish case finite
strands
of hair
1
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Pictor
it is
the
com
plic
atio
ns
of sh
adow
s on
a fie
ld
of sn
ow, t
he w
hite
ness
no
t whi
tene
ss, b
ut sh
ades
of
whi
te im
plie
d by
its
su
rrou
ndin
gs, t
he b
lues
, th
e go
lds,
the
grey
s of i
t,
the
stre
aks t
hat t
rees
, sun
,
and
squi
rrel
mak
e. it
is
not w
hite
ness
but
witn
ess;
it
is in
ters
ectio
n, a
n ey
e.
on cold days w
hen I strew the base
of my sw
eet gum
with bird seed
and my m
outh is host to that flit array of fauna w
hich clings at the neat lip of suburbia-- squirrels, blue jays,
chickadees, sparrow
s (w
hite-throated, house and tree), nuthatches, hairy, dow
ny and red-bellied w
oodpeckers, morning doves,
grackles, cow birds,
cardinals, starlings, robins, rabbits, m
ore jays, juncos, finches (purple, gold, and house), titm
ice, w
rens, more sparrow
s, m
ore squirrels, and crow
s--and my cat,
though drowsy now
w
ith age, sits chattering at the w
indow in w
onder at this burst of new
s, then I am
the happy puppet of m
y home.
* *
*
* *
*
2
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Grus with Piscis Austrinus * * ** * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
FearedrivenTappingsOfTheBarbUnroadsKnobbingHeartampBrailikeOtolithsOfSleeplessInspeakInspawn:
para-more rays in the gloaming like phantasmal bird, fog-lit,
frominside.
song of the blue-gut hazing the windows repeats itself
glottally, gurglely like coffee machines.
like everything, the gymnastic walk downstairs to a table full
of yesterdays, an alluvium of glacial hands
in the disconnect mounting into hardscape, and one more nut
unribboning blue-light like another sky.
3
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Pegasus/Indus
* *
* * * *
* * *
*
* * *
always, the always-humming hum of machines: you can hear it and
it means, from street or yard, in bath or bed, through torn sheets
of whatever sky, you can hear it; and it means home is a shape
humming with machines
*
* *
*
*
*
to be the lost electric comfort of the sea-mother's womb, the
cellular memory of her nervous system throbbing the sad lightening
of new breath down the pure umbilicus of some blank throat you long
for
*
*
*
* *
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
4
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Virgo
* *
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
* *
the heart—choked on thistles of the rush of anything— wakes
to—of an—alien opacity— fields of asparagus creeping strange like
fingered ribs beside new mountains of birdsong— with ganglions of
internal light roaring from afar— its ganglions—the distance
trembling with what's to be mirror— or among some—these honeycombs
scent-tensed to uncold blights of fluted shapelessness— light-right
into sentence—senses— census of—evolution's daily— liminal—end—or
like the times—however many—this happened—
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
5
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Cetus
*
* * *
*
*
*
* *
* *
*
* *
* *
*
* *
*
6
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Centaurus
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
* * *
*
*
* * *
*
* * * *
*
* *
what songs are left to sing are snug in a robin's throat,
whispered there, practiced -- star- dust thinking
7
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Crater
*
*
*
*
* *
* *
not o
ne
not o
ne
n n o
t
e
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
let them go home, I hear it say; time is full and they are
ti(me)red. their cars point habit-ward; their blankets ripple like
tidal pools. let them go home, I hear it say; time is full and they
are ti(me)red.
8
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ANDREW BRENZA is the author of the chapbooks 21 Skies (Shirt
Pocket Press)and And Then (Grey Book Press) as well as the
full-length collection GossamerLid (Trembling Pillow Press). He
lives in New Jersey.
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Copyright c© 2017 Beard of Bees PressOak Park / Chicago,
Illinois
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www.beardofbees.com
