Their Fields

8/10/2019 Their Fields

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Their Fields

By Jordan Stempleman

moria -- chicago -- 2005


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copyright 2005 Jordan Stempleman

book design by William Allegrezza

moria1151 E. 56 th St. #2Chicago, IL 60637

http://www.moriapoetry.com


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Their Fields

When what happens is not intentional, one cant ascribe meaning to it,and unless what happens is necessary, one cant expect it to occur again.

--Lyn Hejinian

Dozen permanent tours the body.Legwork of frequent weather attached outside.More controls bodies as runners use motiondiscovering new ways to be tired.Down row cold Saturdays, band rounded peddle.

We lodge not in any way towards a left golden means,as in a lobby, two high-back chairs, opened pliers,the vicinity of two children using a fulcrum.Splash some overnight stay, pure mother, burning down the home with your corned beef.

*

Red hair, scarf roman.The flowers on daises, fordhook lima beanseaten five nights in the row. Clearly litis the dying order it leaks behind a wall,staining statistics on baseball cards.


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They kneel before the cleats wear and theres still time to get whacked by the titans.

*

Hes a rash man, sees showy as convenient,frantic in their edits. Baby frozen.Amazing the thing left behind when you move.Veils of swill, logos take on the side.Paystub stuffed into ready-made pipes.Bindis made of metal.A corpus of animal spouses we areand the barbed tales weighted down with the lost.

*

A chance is all the storage an hour really needs;drinks free between 3-5, the same towelkeeping up with the arm often.Widespread and standingto notice how this landscape improves ourselves.

Its best to date these stories both me,turn attention later.

*

Easier ladies. Reeling words insidehalls of cave. Are we ever told


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exactly how to visualize it a chance now to berate roommatesinto hears and now of speech itself.

Batting the ball back to where flowersare quick as bird claw. Saying despair,false teeth, can't get more specific than this.Indicate slowness into fog and dug dogs a tomb.He had to perform his belief.Emphasis advisedwhen women change names.

*

The hapless trainfollows asphalt's road.The climax tour sings rubber knowing wheels.

*

You're really somethingsays dialogue to itself.It needs no rubbing in.While speaking has its own rulesall alive puffs alone, under cottonwoods,fingers sticky with ourselves.Acrylics low top the lightning bluein both stories: lawn clippings lipoma brittle stuck to my eyes.


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Clearance now a startso more room can come out.One person ends yelling

through a open window, valuing faces before, while there rearranges the grain.

Integrity, a dense patchmore ardent than hermits.Too bad begins its age.All wishes for another shrugfrom brats who sit against walls,where work is talk of many titles.It follows ludditeswho cry past engines without sounds.And other races ruling selfless outfrom western culture.That would be like old timeson her tight chemise. A delicate balancemaintained, and still I smellof onions aftermath,music resting on the sideas remorseful material.

She was only nineteen broke every record bound into books.

Her garlands collect terminal in illness.Brown hair spiraling through holesdrilled in work pants, under-bile of pennies. Some can feel the cryfrom smelling insides of ball caps;a broken stress in anomaly.

But there's something like yonder to this, walking forward


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with the housepainter, pointing outwhere old tape has pulled paintclear off. He likes the smell

and so do I. Theres no bodyguards,no stance for any scramble. Way rainsometimes adds crumbs across lanterns.

*

Conduct rarely explaining logic,gradient through sustaining belief with curve and store.Common densities of growthinitiate talking cheekswords repeated as logicremove stressor having to say more.

A black boy holds his father's handeven after the limousine passesthrough Plymouth, under the stock exchange.

Aside, be the first grandchildto learn about the frame-by-frame progression of thrown brick.

The lord knew there would be needlesand too between losing housewifenight finds are ever more awed.

Dew of freedom, so often epidermal.


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One day a week planning scoopsinto neat little piles.

She thinks of these illegal formsof engraving so often. Petite nerves.Amusement when sculpted.Dangling frugal with the frustrationof having to remain in one place.What counts. Day fresh air pockets dwellers on empty stomachs.Still biting her baby, brutal without trustand guts to say we were talking to someone else

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The pokeylittle puppytakes pills onlyfor naptime.Softly be called played in, but it's confessionswhich are dainty.

Meanwhile,cultivated their stealinto private lifethen stoodmoving. Footballrolling off fingertips, anenvelope seemedimportant


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held above pots of steam.Tension is ordered

hitched upwith this sort.Brassrowing awayin darkness.Chambersof the bornless.Tight Swiss dresstoo boyish, laid outon backyard lawns.Handsome insertionsrun on like this,free of any gripso burnedwith instanceto degree.Dropped dimes, buckled mint.To recollectthe generally good barroom smelland notice you've

walked around, outsidethe high school,around againto place yourself before newsimilar profiles.


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(Closing the businesscreates first tea plantationin Darjeeling. This is somewhat close

to visits across the southwest,where what separates her from joining him in their favorite citiesare a couple of old visits to thoselazy trading posts, deserted from graceand favor.)

Frowns are the various wornfrom out the living.Same feeling emergeswhen buying art in the united states.Guaranteed as lawn-mowersTV sets or any other Sears product.

Bird and tree periods.

Tiny tantrumssnare watercolor.

Its in this scrimmage of storm cloudswhere arbitrary distention

and immersion minus humor releases to be this way.

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The dealer serving ice tea among shop partssaid he was interested, in no part he became


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the failed urbane rust. Strip along the water into land.Some seeing meshed burrowingin what appeared a succession of white handled brooms.

In stillness, gutters of water pose, as jurisdiction becomes readiness, becomes sitting in peace and quietholding these hands. When will come those trialsthat fear the harm of straight-aways?An astronomer bearing little worth to leaves.

*

Soon we climb the influence now cutas the ivy tours into astounding.Placed in winders of millsoh shot inn back across the street. Numbed strikersdropped what they were doingheading down to the funeral.Make no mistake, no connected commentto galley men, jars whose designs are so different.Slip of single dandelion, way of ripe age.Today, vanish settles over everything, eveninto trunks where the fat snug feelings move.

Kitchen-garden. Rubbing behind the earsto itch the throat, leaving this alone before settling in, enough, then cherish this move.

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Blocks pass by. Cars parked on either side of street.


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Puddles taper kerb. The elite auto repair eyes pass over parts of broom, reaching aroundinto backyards where junked carburetors

could be meant walking stones.Piece of firewoodholds down the blue tarpover all the other firewood.Murky stillness finds unique instantsor limited spans tracing the exact.

Never touched keroseneand there's no smell of it now.


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II.

She's over a nice wooden desk where cold water pipes drape jaggedunder planks of scaffolding outside.City block held fuming, and so

the young ones must adapt;drinking water from public fountainswithout squalling about the past decade.

There's not enough placementfor pockets rush past. Far be gonethe Irish skin glow, the longing expressionsof faces walking directly into sunlight.

With remaining stancethe peripheral's exposed and pampered.

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Aside from the long after,again he had an aegis of pills.A killer from the string in his lip.Starting midnight.Seats across from them.Femurs phase entirelyaround a harvest never found. No longer in either sideretinal twitch reminds someof curious bumpsshown rising up in cartoons.


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*

Forget past design by rummaging in social halls.

Kept is what dwellsin desk drawer,corner tweezed.

She's brightin this memory:

her hair resumingon his thigh- blended fall.

This much

did standin her way.

Outset for evening pond,time of day

locks butter smolder in a yellow dish.

Flip chartcoming next

if we musthave perceptions


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Nurse to monitor wand across

the taut.

Loosely,healing progressed.

Contiguityof scrollsstill wet

on men's skin.Where pupa

and the bygoneexplain why

they often keep paisley around.

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He obviously knew pine treesdrove her sinuses wild.Grinning topless with loaned flunkies,theyve been stuck together, preface unsigned. Finally to step back from the elasticity, head of drum.

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Ductile mail systems fromcollectors are hoarding the yarn.

Finding swinging plantsafter few more walked with him.

Clubs backed as gulfsinto crowds.

Every swarm tasted horrible,from approach or fright,sitting alone at her light tablesorting slides keep dullaccidental things. He remembers pleading with her, Honeycalm down.Days of recovery result,

scattered from bad back and cold entire sheets.

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Two long programs wrap one scraptorn from garden's hot insides. Dirty bandsmall bend. Pure hardonstays above the historic portaland it's anecdote after anecdotethat explain the most personal territory.Sweatshirt considered.


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Dirt street and haven sniff someor all unnamable.

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Rolled from loomour sleep impresses whowho stumbleslike any paradiselooking for peopledown into dumps.

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Forking through a stuffed artichoke.fifties hair. Conversationgraceful because of overlaps cuff splattered over with mud. He wipes what he canwith wet naps. Upper mixturerelieves most

exposed beams for bushy heads.

Testsordinarilyresisted themso much.

Older ladyflapping minutes away;


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in figures she considersgreen as highest pitch, back porch

where loneran together.

Colored bitsof fish food

coveringtheir tailbones head tilted boyish.

Theyre on their own by snappingeach others fingers,

as another filmstocks their traits.

(Pinched littleflagellants

reveal her soft

bellys glow.)

Acoustically,doormen hear this all.Buttons pushed. No money for a doctor,none needed.


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Fast walkershanging on sentrieshoarding lion's share,themselves only bunchesof pit and jute.

More murmur heard over carports.

A ceiling fanslost its periapsisin the thump.

*

All line the sensitiveline closer once to dance.

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Metals now possible as human.Eye armed.

She drops, envisioningthe way he brushes his teeth.Mingling takes over.


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Deposits skimmed as bullionform matter into fact.

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Pool seen from the bottom up. Leaves wet surface pass by June beetles, stems of chewed bottle rockets,and band-aids best purpose withdrawn.The porch all shade tracks tennis shoesspilled under rod iron unlatch; lift of habit.

Wind deaf. Hard swat on the assgave him something to grow on.Mustard on dry paper plate,swapped for sucking ice, then turning fallinto grass dizzy. Hedge on horse.

No cousins attended the hiatus,meaning some closure is lostfrom not knowing exactly whenwe laughed and laughedabout the name Lynard Skynard.

Everyone posed nicelyholding together awhile longer after the fault oldest one therekept pitted pressing on a bruise;


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greenish endfor each sentence.

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Its on occasion he sprouts ahead,thinking hes alone. It falls between her last painted nailand beyond challengescast in late stubborn leaning.

Stir the stanceof these flakeshowever you may,and yet its still their.

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A white flame stalls, binds the cure mute.Essence arrives moveable, in like close-up, broadcast of first draft.

After the lights were turned off,kitty litter brushed from the soles of his feet,he got back into bedand knew passes were not really meant.He didnt envision move. Same venue grown together where they foresee how his lecturestighten those incidents of old, thought reworked


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and whats spun into tribunal cape is soon thrown boldlyover sleeping figures turned around inside.


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Potato eatersstaring half-asleepat the oldapple trunk.


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Say the voice is the voice but not this far along


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*

who knows if Larry Holmesreally fought his way to the top besides, I heard he was one of thosewho drank his six-packsleaving all cans in their plastic rings

current enough is the virusmuch like how playboy sweetnesslasts those few minutesafter the toaster has popped

and you rush out the back door without remembering a scarf without any sense to inherit some opacity

as the second best fraud

first being, really, sound asleeplast periods of walkoutshand around analgesic jobs

no animal to make with handsor none that feel good enough on the joints

(an old tree stump

left endingthe long gravel driveway proves some positions shift; become secular


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going back inside.When one hopesthe pushy guy with the turquoise shirtmight carve his initialsinto the bathroom mirror listening to nothing but the bond of peer laughter)

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Seconds before the line dancing stoppedthere was that look again tail splatter of comet beneath eyes.Almost shooting the thing off in any direction ever dreamed.

Monologue of listsoff across the horizon.

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Oh, now just to mention this thickset infiniteshould bob the seasick around an endless natant pouch.

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The rented planecircles above, trailinga sun stroked banner.It passes over the packed stadium,where pompoms appear flailing horrible tempers.

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Wife moving the Bissell upstairs. Porcelain bangs against the toilet,morning rugs get shaken out, and me staring at ground sprinklers affectstheir undertaking to resign.

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Wounded mirth falling for likeness. Crumpled height.Pine needles on back bumpers become only things stationary:stuck blossoms on the rubber marked rainwater. She wipesher two fingers along gas caps old rides. Whys this? she asks.He cant even begin to spot the slip of rocks, stones that tighten withoutadmittance. His face to cling into her wet hair, curling under an itchy tag between neck and shirt. Its this turning completely aroundthat brings them off the grass and into managed touch.

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chords of boy coughsfalling under all leverage

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hanger rattlesagainst the window

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back upand runningfor us to face

this loform risen

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nearest restaurant

her glasses left behindsome wire rimcaught by lightsredirecting the sweather head downwardstill above


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III.

Firm braved ground with encounter Marrow breaking a threadlike wedgeinto what was circulationunder a tied cloverleaf. No forgetting concrete, staying

strictly in every concrete event some cars even had tape decksstill playing. All the samedelays kept some from makingthe impossible... chopper-4reporting from I-29.

*

First game counts this time

Hello sports,

Hello sweet face.

Sliced onion there

after days.

And of her months, well, shes still proud

hanging around vegetative compression.Deep orange of citronella,


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a snail sends up his valve, toot-toots,and signals two votes for staying home.

Halfie nadir screws everlasting, this they discussas he slaps once again the frozen sliced ham,dancing naked for her, dancing before his dinner.

*

O sweaty you lineage!Supposing old men are grownwhen they hold sport coats,folding themselves preciselyinto their jackets

with pipe fitters seal.His pants have a forumtheyrefilled with us, taking the scuffsfrom front steps and nuancestracked by sleeveless crossbones.Recognized as necklines, but havingall other supremacy in weeks, wheredown in their troughs arrives a self cleaned up for headlined soar.

*

THE SILENCE IN A ROOM WITH TWO PEOPLE

THE TELEVISION REPLACES EVERY THIRD NOUN


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*

Facing a closet, pole free of hangers. No light to come from the lake.My choice begs, then goes againfor the alive its after.

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Hustling means legs, but its bikes always finding or receiving admiration.

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90 pages of text, cleaned legend, Buttons, t-shirts, and flyers got thethe wind. bullies kicking much harder today.

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Noise treads, going into campsites, Smartened up with heavy-handeddeciding rather than repair its crochettwo seasons, cooled byinvention received. pepper and what we overlooked.

*


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Meal plans hold all partial decay Sent over the empty boxes, thoughtwhile the waste stands in off-shades you might need them for the move.worn by those uneasy of summary.

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Late dying down of generations, Near being closest to close, wherethe elderly awakened beyond habits banished tenderlywith faces slight alone.and grilled angry.

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They could call it a den, you More wrongs perhaps to followcall it a family room, and then kinked maybes under the table.theres not much else to say. Giggling, tying sleepy relatives

shoelaces into knots.

Harassment circulates around the office

ending up in the piecrust


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or sprigs cut from mothers tonguethose that have browned a bit.

Freshly poured flanks bar studyfarmed skies.She tries rememberingthe last dwarf funny one who sanglowest register.

Maybe he saved the day let bluebird sit atophis dusty old hat.

Red nosed from staying out,continuing the goose fair deep into Sunday.Sudden true-blue squawk due soon to imagine.The second before imagine,formless and in lovewith itchy scalp, they settleand remain adjacent.Eyes heavy crossed, endowedwith a sinking coinage of tilt.Long shadows fall andlook to hanging against new turf.

Late being

the mode of being.One pin...and two pins...


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J k d


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James askedam I ready to readRagtime Tumpie

rain dis smear his urge

he shakes as tiny stopsrocking willinto place

with pretty clear ideas

elusive nature of aspectsneed picking upalong the way

mans will

prunes reconstructed

into pagodasand frenching whonever knocks

haunches scatteredabout a family room

interchange of tansy pried openexpanse perforatedwith courageous own ways

to change she thinksonly leaves sloppiness

you start talking about

d


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coarse and everyonesuddenly says bless youand goes on

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citywide expands the manhuntthe whereabouts of your poochleft up to the flyers

he rewraps leftover turkeykeeping it flushagainst the plate and pinneddown with the last sheetof plastic wrap left on the roll

kitchens without coffeeall creepy

path caught up to once morereach found the foldsunchanged by complaintnever looking tiredin front of his parentsshe knew, all that is unmanlyin me is the good

*

wherever it comes from

this simple instrument


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this simple instrumentsought after in spite of traveland not often of the same mind

closer couldnt predictwhere lands standard catch onsonce inside it was quiethis seconds dragged him off when my nose gets all runnyand my throat gets all chokyand my eyes get all sting-y

frame second to the balconyslipping back for fish and chipsso many people in pantsroof access brings out shineand relates to those willingservants are for tomorrowthey mingle mostly with their handsand in recent yearswalk the drinks back out to the car feel up worryI held him for a long timeshe whispered in dumpof more I had it plannedlending our first talk struck by his sectioning expected

*

cleaning the runwayskneeling and virtually serious

sleeveless white shirtagainst the reddish brick wall

applause living through


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applause living throughroadways unlit buildings going up premier hazy languageover new lines of sightkitsch as chuck wagonthese new riserswhich seep upwardswith smells of salmon croquetslong blasts of spray paintand upturned secrecy

varying with duration

(two more handshave touched the cat)

theyve put on socks todayfacing the draftthat comes fromforsaking el Grecosnight cliff shawls

awake on first beepsit up standwith a scratchalong waistband

meantime creates issuestiff paper towelthanks an earlier diagnosiswaxing the index of commercialsall through the placewho was it that wanted

to turn on the faucetas he shampooed


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blisters as a childcame and went with the sunnot with the skin fading lowover the horizon

knowing for sureits a smell of babyshe finishes her face inoverhead stokestwo-ply humidity

driving without a walletmeans less timespent in banks

is there a chancewell seewhat that girl looks likeon the way outafter this seriescarries over well-being

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dash marks along thetarnished spigothave garage salersasking for the price togo down a quarter

*


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dads stress chargeson green grass, middaywith a submarine sandwich

periwig soldwith a bottle of blue-black permanent, rubber banded

to the wild hairs

some they worry aboutonly when drivingand its almost alwayswhen the inside might taketheories forgedinto extreme quake of handlersfresh one notesincluded with bug stories by children in their drivewaycrouched and trading pebblesthose best when thrown

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everything left untouchedin the creaking medicine cabinet

classmates also face nervousness

on Monday, changing tunesin their rivals stump

in the back of the last garage


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g gthey sell old sightseeing brochuresfor a nickel apieceone catching her eye

called it the climb of your lifethrough rivers cast-iron stillearly into July photographs

the racks of smelly clothes hold her back looking out for shinsmoving slowly past years

of shaded outdoor machinerywhen does last time come back perfect as ideal rowsin the wake of the corespondent scent

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theres always lunchto talk aboutthe ways of things

sweltering water glass pointing directly upto the sternumbrella outside

in order to carry onthese do so ago in yearswhen loss and polished floorshad the same tepid stainchoices repeated again

without a break in concentrationguided sedentary into lifestyles


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how, Im not sure but we do knowif the words are antonyms

color the apples red

*

Start up of soap

across both legs, upand out of the water.Its this journey in mindwhen all else looks downand there are few reflectionsupon our looted old made.Blocking out the oblong patchnow free from what was known brings out a stay in alertness.

*

His head drummingthat way he could work itand go while all are quiet.Startling morning windshold together an old canvass bag.It has none of the advantagesof either country or city,its relief packed away inside.

Postpone the approachinguntil the feel of brakes


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pull close to the dash,where then connotationsare helpful.

Caution in taillightsfrom those carswhose owners roll diefor stomachache. Clear and great,for in darknessthe dipper hangs by a stringso often held in scrap.

*

Night matched their complexionsas they lay looking up to the starschurning privy of gas.Re-reading this momentwhere silent decisions on backsare left gazing into new chapters. Not repeated, not knocking againfor favors. The panic of being thrownand dragged stays far away.Tonight, its the make of one glimpsethat seeks to even the lightest bond.

*

all thats said still hangs aroundhardening the features and methods

of labeling all else into abound time biddies

*


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going to lay in this nest

until theres spit tobaccoturned into cheese

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beside and promisingto remain in sightto mention how carefullythe single mother put yellow party hatsat each childs place settingthe lift of balloonsundetected past crevicesof chased prayer

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I worry about himshe said, beforeto herself.One note lifting her simply onto a bullin some wheat striped landscapecomplete with breaking coltsand hand timed wisdom.

The legendary back home ear

h f fl ili b


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has concern for answers flailing about.Where back home a good day soundsin piping, and when the cold bit

the muffled world of examples may yet to land.

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curve of her first flightnortheast

a cameragets jostledshiveringunder the pilots seat

*

from his tree-shaded officehe hung

fading photographsof past guestssuch as NelsonRockefeller JoanFontane and

GeorgeHarrison


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Harrison

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northern plains break colts behind the chute

its oddly privatein dust

forewarn the generousin hopes that flagscan somehow wave through

*


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*

Custodian changing

magnetic letters

of the schools sign

midst a hooked

approach of the last U

in Columbus Day,

This route leads

to each new

accomplishment from

uniformed children

whose barrettes

clang together in steps

that know gravel down

to last throw.

Theyre snared worth

so unlike the ghastly

strands of garbage

their dumpsters

filled high with

brown boxes

crushed flat.


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Who by fragment

fly off questioning

the style of a heavy

misapplied chest.

Wandering young things

who scratch their initials

into tomatoes

ripe by the sink.

Before the landslide

there seemed remembrance,

lanolin and burrs

taken up some

what some never see.

As returning

to simple ability,

of saying,

this is how it feels

last time anew,

caught with cold,

now alike

in sweats tremble.


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THEIR FIELDS


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Documents

Their Fields