Issue 20: Otto & Gisel
H O T T O T R O T
WE’RE GOING TO NEED MORE NAPKINS
Laboratories on
sight, no salads on
site; a long way
from home.
Lunging towards the rail
god given
inside the furlong
god given won the pinnacle
crimson rosette.
They do love to win.
THE NEUMARKT PROJECT
fascinator
all away
away
horse
all away
applause for bend
curtis
gun metal, four pounds twenty
class two, seven furlongs’
grace, after a race
equine parties adorned by
burgers
ADDICTED TO YOU
To be gone at the end
of the first furlong, inside
the rail remaining some
fifteen lengths, a levity
in the alchemy of dressing
up to occupy the halfway
point, the slip stream of
occupation – the amazing
red of paddock heartache.
RASPBERRY ROSE
confined fillies
rebel with geraniums
to light the blue
of our predicament
and dead riders ring
on the tannoy, heads
turn for a winner
as voices change and
we tune in to diablo
magic, Falstaff’s proportions.
SLIGHT DELAY
Esme’s heat stirs
the paddock, anticipation
for a demi, offense
blooms from bodies too
large for their own fix,
remarked upon the drift,
easy in the market but she wins,
in the end.
SHE’S GOT BOTTOM
poèmes en prose
enclosed,
la première enmity
for aristocracy,
sponsored by Hoggie’s.
STORM BRINGER
Otto, count
Joey – down the
hatches, give me
beige hollow news
made fake by Georgian
manners – in the white
of a hot soldier’s minute.
STEWARD’S ENQUIRY
Oh baby, I’m wilting
at the races, sprung
off the back to hear
namesakes run to scale
the final furlong –
how fast the time went.
A BOT & A BET
When fresh meets
cheeky and the places
remain unaltered.
Put your hands together,
the hope to be
the winning trainer.
20 - 1
Byron flyer with
the purple stars
who heard it on
the grapevine, royal
blue in the saddle,
give me stripes in
the sun blazer and without
the rose how different
things would be and life
tapping in to the linguistic suit,
a handicap, to join
the maiden ride.
Otto & Gisel are Jack Parlett and Anne Stillman. They've previously written collaboratively on Walter Benjamin's Arcades Project and are currently working together on a longer project tentatively titled 'Acting like Frank O'Hara.' Anne Stillman teaches English at Clare College, Cambridge and Jack Parlett is a doctoral student at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge and soon to be a Junior Research Fellow at University College, Oxford. 'Hot to Trot' was conceived out of the horses and first composed on napkins at the Newmarket races in June of this year.
