Issue 20: Dave Shortt
N-fold Ode, ‘On Beauty’
the moon rises between the cypresses,
poets note their nights,
making metrics of their days, feet
that today
(after taking so many years of steps
away from pulses
torn apart in school
while learning to read & write
from the translated classics, as kids),
feet that today escorted
a potted ornamental lemon
(iambically?) into the garage
away from predicted frost,
an act possibly reminiscent
of Eros’ ‘tenderness for plants’
at that early age when flowers
of the looks of girl-peers
were constantly getting shoved in his face
olives fallen & left on the ground,
abandoned riches, ruins,
who can redeem them?
Orpheus? Kore?
from the oblivion of the seasons,
from the summers looked back on
while the hermaphroditism of artichokes
remains a mystery quietly settled,
water is wrung from atoms
unable to quench choral authority & austerity
animals still get torn apart,
vintages of self-knowledge
slosh around in delicate craters, dry & wet
was the sky's taste
acquired now by meteorology
forgotten dialogue grows inundated by lyrics,
irrigation by words is taught,
as blood (while respected) evaporates in vapidity
of course it makes no sense in utopia or parallelograms
unless they unfurl as tantalizing maps
Aphrodite Speechless Beauty
experiments with ambidextrous touches
beyond reach of one leftist lover,
one rightist lover,
how love, she reflects, must love its love-nests,
her ageless Paphos
is like a pacemaker built of soul
implanted in the heart's rockiest coast
Sappho on record
in terms of an overpopulated mainland,
wind & rain
settle into fragments
stabbing the mud,
trying to take over the East
‘fetal alcohol syndrome’
was smashed in ceramics held together
by ‘something to do’,
maenads were throwing radishes
when under the fasting sun
heroes rushed like intermittent streams
home from the games
Earlier Observables in Memory of Niels Bohr
electrons arrive at a new level
of eloquence
or mundane (expression)
atoms of free thought
in a molecule of
(repression)
half-harassed from
vulnerable positions that momentum
spirits away into ( ),
who'll change
from the energy released? vikings
pacified, as in their new bibles
they pick out kennings or ( )
while one or more cosmic language
argues against
control of the right-now-isolated soul &
love induced in
very small worlds, the family
put in its place, shamelessly
or modestly coordinated in functions
( )
half-real given
(totalitarian) differentials chained
in duality to (it)
(like Garm),
weapons of mass destruction
testing consciousness, sleep
is so close, sleep
comes out of hiding,
(un-) (im-) partial measuring device,
dream heat of alpha waves telling
possible quantum demise of
(Asgard?)
(reverts to lead,
impenetrable)...
changed
energy,
(
) keep earth spinning
masculine feminine common neuter
accelerated particles collision
( ) behind their laws
( )
metaphysical increments
a textbook element of ( )
shadowing their remaining days
into posthumous regions
‘a land of no rivers’, blessed or possessing
in one of its shells
ample rainfall
to provide the increase of its fields
......
(later observables)
quantum of action when karma
vibrates relation to tainted ( )
neutron a
white cross superposed on
(reds)
cloud chamber, tracks untainted
tolerance such
colors
real number advances
Galileo's earth, moving wavelengths
of winter wheat
photons ( ) supplement now
& then an incarnation, ingot
from third
(hot-
spot) world line
decaying
political fallout
(hermetical-
ly) sealed
room, heavy
retorts, heavy seeds, a bomb
is wanted, enough
potatoes to feed an army, yellow?
(uncertainty) cake open to integrate
saltwater particles on all sides
cellars stockpiled with
potential calories, drums
of water
hog & onions conserved in
what happened from the first slander
( )
forced from new world
rowing initial conditions
deep keel works, provokes
critiques of collapsed motives
contemplate Tivoli cyclotrons
faith in where you are
(‘Thor’s-
day’)
unpredictable outcome of variables
superpower creations
in the end ( ) this small thing
if it would be told,
anglo-saxon futuristic
grossest usage
infinite calculations (equals) pacified nothing
the physicists are allowed to enjoy
as guestworkers of
......
(further observables)
self-conscious mark
(
) granite & uranium continuous
states
photo ( ) sensitive plate in
( )
darkroom, backroom
diplomacy suspected
stars of
(Freya) (con-
flagrations)
mother conditions
(Holstein)
( ) (complimenting)
the long night
(break-
ing) light
cones
the self-
unconscious peace
( )
(pipe)
Dave Shortt is a longtime writer (from the USA) whose work has appeared over the years in numerous print & electronic literary-type venues, including Ygdrasil & Uut Poetry. Recently, The Ekphrastic Review, Molly Bloom, The Journal, & Poetry Salzburg Review each published one of his poems. In mid-2018 more are scheduled to appear in Peculiar Mormyrid & Knack Magazine.
