Issue 5: Billy Cancel
don’t soft pedal this hideous slack
was dragged from sowden’s bridge to
unwitting hour’s open call for soluble additions
& guess what fungus
on the brain was recalling
a series of 2 digit codes to produce
a selection of custom sandwiches next
time it’ll take obscene
reconnaissance before i leave
19th century germany again if anyone needs
to find me i’ll be with portable autumn
waiting for the ferry back
another year uncontrollable in the self
storage capital zoom there’s me with spoon cuts to
my mouth reverb rises focus blurs pink oval
walking across the moor upon a road alone
comes a storm suddenly covering all the land
& through the rain trudge i cold to a crossroads but
no names on the sign post are known or near so
i take any road until the next crossroad comes
but find each place name unknown or far so freezing
wet i road to any crossroads same though i can’t
& slump down in the red mud grey sky sucks me up
late last Stinging Nettle Day
i took a shortcut home through Torrid Zone.
just before Bloody Corner from the dark to my left a man approached.
in a low voice the stranger called my name & raised his arms in greeting.
not hands but metal hooks & in the left he balanced
a leaf of palm knotted tight into the shape of a rose.
he claimed to have made this rose & begged me to take it
was then i fled to LOVE’S SOFT RESET.
Billy Cancel is a Brooklyn based poet/performer. He has been widely published in both the US (including Lungfull!, Fact-Simile, 580 Split, and Indefinite Space) as well as publications in the UK, Canada & Australia. He performs in the poetry/noise band Farms & self-publishes chapbooks & recordings through Hidden House Press.
