FANZINE

///

now then there’s the man south of town the man and
the cat the goose the dog and the pet turkey
some puffer fish in a magnifier dream
how he’d convinced ’em all to swallow a string
with a ball of meat a ball of sticky grain
how when the string they shat
how he’d onto the next
until cat goose pet turkey and the big dog named rob
were all on parade joined to a string and how he’d tied a tripleknot
out the ass of big bad rob
and sometimes’d take ’em in the bar or just for a walk up the road
to the cacophonic honkings of the amazed

///

and that man got canned because he was spending so much
time at home cleaning shit off a string
that man holy misty kept a bar
of soap by the garden hose
and cussed himself gently gently
as tho to pull a sliver of sheep wool
out of a baby’s eyelid
cussed for his bad back bad black luck and
cussed for his own stooping
but gently now there’s
a decent rat pride there

///

to name the direction of so many

///

true a string ain’t a rod but does it say
you will and this way for now it does

///

until what exists exits acids that string into not string
and it’s everyone for their own alone again
the babble kin again the sore mouth kings of
the rushes and weeds as i have heard
as they are known to tell through a shoehorn mouth
through a soda burp gotta pay
for the water but it’s all the soap you want for free

///

mizzled grist
what the haybined grass
how the down grass would say
midswoon if not for the roar
of the smokin whale
and the bang and whir of the bine

///

if god is
god is a
coyote trailing the green plume
of cut and thrown headed out timothy
slaloms to catch at shredded mouse
bits flung back red half
alive or not popcorn
beautiful dream
the ocean movie-candy store
the ocean amazon.com
the wave window lava
it’ll eat yr center will not hold

///

the beautiful logic of a stitch
nobody’s dog does
zag ‘er way to full tank
and timberlines in the
tautology of hospitality
we meet to beat the prolix superflux
slap the icecream ball in yr mitt
throw it

///

one idle bee
chainsaw wing fog song
holds the cream up
one flung sugar drum to another
boys if that ain’t the sun
then heat up the skillet
and throw my feedhats in

///

for he had been one of two men some the north of town
known to men to have tamed a crow i tell you that crow
followed him to church and sat on a post til out they’d come for there that crow
would be waiting on a fence or on the hood of the car
that crow a coal a sheep baa got caught in and his

///

half and then maybe 3/4 the congregation twistin their necks
in the jailbreak talkin hustlin for the car before one
loudmouth or another crank caught ’em in did you hear how are did and
twisting the necks of their hearts the people swelled a little with envy at that crow his crow

///

it was the closest thing
to having a really nice car
two little oil drips for eyes and a beak so big
dream head gavel laugh her huge
with a lizard’s stray strange moo moving

///

in frickin short a naked snake killed with a bible slap crow
was nicer than anyone was a hundred pound of noah rainbow in that crow

///

to sit on a shed rafter while he cussed a machine to get at those
belts you got to have yr wind yr cuss best and the patience of
some sturdy char in witness but that fool crow started in on dandy
would star glide away midfix to go on and run its bright head puddle wise
then dripping drift back in above and carrying on
about how lazy the rain work drop wait til
ground give a mouth party until ray lee laze until
the whole shittin tin shed had a echo about have you ever lit a lawnmower on fire
tried pull the cord fire honestly maybe not even
close to the pest pecker echoings of that crow and his truly

///

lay a socket down lay a sweet little necessary wrench
the last straw upon the last crow

///

turn his back to reach for what have you and his
crow in a shutter of startling fastness sudden rush of blackness
as the night is rainin jellyfish as the jellyfish are plastic trash bags
as the bags are plastic but with the falling power of iron lead
a mouthy cocky gut a wild falling
like that like death down came that
fool foe crow

///

all floating out across the barnyard and lord knows to where
the crow flies with something shines but i’ll tell you if
there’s a bitter image for the witness the searcher the faithful it just might be that
crow 11/16th wrench out its front side shine freckle first star twi lie
and swallowed down the woods soft sonant ketch pie

///

talkin everything broken foal duck dirty
for a stuck little big broke ass tie

///

and it was then he knew a life without options
simply and frankly the
rock bottom balding the bottom line

///

so dressed himself head to toe in blackness borrowed
a few things from his wife but that’s another story and
slid like riding ice into his car such that he fooled his crow
hoo wasn’t easy foolin its bright eyes dark upon him
fooled the crow that it was a funeral
when everyone busts their inner crow out ha ha
but the sorriest part to report is as his .22 rifle reported through ka ka the
dutiful guts and gutsy brain of that crow his well what can i
tell would be right

///

he had a heavy brand of sorry heavy all his life

///

on a shovel flipped he his crow into the woods where lord knows
his dropped for losing airmailed wrenches creeped a stellar blow
like a mule ear peaked locked bolt right light against work

///

everything out there against that crow ya know
wary for the taint of 8 fingers it wd be that way forever four three
and then a three four and then a four three and then a three four
yes was a long one before the last black feather fell out
of a straight line to go on and seek the sleepmeats of a circular dust and rolling heavy back and ford in deep wind did that crowless crow o you could see the lefts of a wing lift little in storms
you could see that with your dinged ear even as tho some sweet black loam to swim tried

///

just a fin not so fine and a-rolling did the sue see dark

——————-

_{Abraham Smith’s fourth Action Books book is Ashagalomancy–find it here. Smith teaches at the University of Alabama; when summer comes, he’s found 5 miles north of Ladysmith, Wisconsin, where the farm work never does quite end.}