May 19, 2022

Poems by Joshua Martin

NEWCOMER TO THE UTENSIL DRAWER

sprinkler psychosis
of waterbed cadavers
dunked the dog
in wrapping paper
giants of Sardinia

fisticuff metropolis
battled raiding elephant
gestures of army
membrane temples
pulling cannibal tarps
over bronze nun heads

rise of royal tomb
crafted space heater
untouchable sack
wetter than irony
facing display case
watchtower mausoleum

chemical o chemical
compounding verisimilitude
w/o kaleidoscope mosquito puck
into pointing coinage


AS STALE AS CRIMSON SORTING LAUNDRY

Femurs enflame vagabond lips
haunting laboratory passions
wretched islands sunning wax mustache
fragrant fragments ecstatic capability
while falling fog logs ferment
dressing a parachute swelling
groundswell radar
cataclysmic hanging
swinging
resetting remote paradise soil
purple enough to observe
simple as though Venus of flames

Poem by Stephen Bett

Novel Lines 101:  101 alphabetical poems, each riffing on the opening line of a postmodern novel or metafiction. Antonio Lobo Antunes, Act o...