LITTLE PALE BALLS and FLOUNDER
1. LITTLE PALE BALLS
The old woman who as lived half a century in the asylum grows with little pale balls. Does she know I dream about her white eyelashes? In this love, this giant sex, there is instability here in the earth where spongy pale bodies writhe. The only way to know anything is making art for her. She dose not know, but paints a dozen orange boxes and asks me to point to which one Jesus is hiding in. It reminds me that my tongue, every atom of my blood, this air, this soil, will eventually all be used up, even though five is enough to weigh one’s self down in a stiff breeze. But these misty trees can cause accidents, fill a river’s summit with ten thousand homes, or simply sit there. So, Donkey-Ears, Bring me the bouquet! Even walls can’t stop me now!
***
From the Author:
This was a Cento poem I constructed using various lines from poems, safety posters, and event flyers. I modified the syntax to aid the flow of the poem and make it seem coherent in the sense that speaker believes they are coherent even if they are not.
*****
2. FLOUNDER
In elevators
When strangers say Hi
Cleavage
And questions
And veins
Eyes
Tentacles, maybe
That thing I forgot in the refrigerator
(Let’s name it Cthulhu)
Thirst in the ocean
Baby carrots in a shot glass
What I want to say to that girl I like
Bugles that don’t fit
Explain the word is
Tell me where ice cream comes from
That’s it I don’t know any other things,
I’m just a fish
***
From the Author:
To write this poem I received a song at random. The song I was given was “Weird Fishes Arpeggi” by Radiohead. I decided to explore the point of view of the weird fishes. Fish in general are pretty awkward creatures so I felt that this should be an awkward poem about all the awkward things in my life.
*****
NICK MONTAGNE is a Cincinnati based poet, a sophomore at the Art Academy of Cincinnati, a vertebrate, and visual artist.
INCLINER 