Issue 7: Nikolai Duffy
Indefinite Articles
1.
Held fast: it came and who came passing through: in of form and out of. And is. But a body of letters. Slow turning. And no body. Matter bent to fold of, in crossing of stain of, marsh stuck as tarry of grain. Although what will not catch. Such and such what. Askance flight of to go out other than as of sun coldens and of hum of as of tarn. And Abraham’s tamarind talion of taking part.
2.
Something else it is. In their straying flight. Then separate so by skin handrails walking. Even though the wind and it rakes. Nose bitten off to spike. The way lines that carry the weight of absence. The frame to flicker. As a raised hand hopes for wider remit. As erosion. Despite sides one way or the other and convergence too the edge of letting go.
3.
If what takes place were otherwise. Not my hand to comment but the slight swell of someone else’s no in me. Me inasmuch as any one. As any you. Cast of no one who carry, pocket-flex, hybrid hands, mute, as much as. Arranged at still. Afar. Unexpected the body voice somewhat hollow going off as a tongue taking time as what will not be swallowed. Cone crossings of to have unfold. Without point. Then side-lines of sight but lately lighter. As catastrophe is to emergence.
4.
And so no windows and door boarded long how from inside. Facedown on the floor. And arms tied behind back and feet to arms. In hand another hand. Cut off at the wrist, wavering strange. Weighs with the flicker of who. Running off. And does not does. The swell of it is turning back. Sideways in a thicket of skin. Vein of carbon. The page leaks into filament and scurrying.
5.
Marrow moving and incomprehensible to mean how to catch or where to go off or what number is. Flecks of it on the edge of writing. As of precipice. Is it proper to turn back at every point so as then already to have been surrounded, as a tongue taking time, scurrying, as what will not be swallowed? Creon incredulous. And the matter of the present. Tense for reference.
Nikolai Duffy is a Senior Lecturer in American Literature at Manchester Metropolitan University where he teaches poetry, American literature and creative writing. He has published various articles on poetics, innovative writing practices and the visual arts. He is currently writing a book on Rosmarie Waldrop. His poems have appeared in Stride and E.Ratio, and his chapbook, the little shed of various lamps, is published by Red Ceilings Press.
