Flannery McAleer
—
Frankie Gets Bail
the floor made of leaves
you scramble eggs you melt cheese
I chop apples pick up my boots
vinegar in the wash
Frankie gets bail
there’s talk
more life the baby across my forearm
I bend holding switch
the sky sucked its stomach in
the arm floats now with the lack
God can I tell it how it is
rage followed me here
no now the little whimpering
the missing as though I were walking toward a horizon
and turning
and walking toward a horizon
it feels I am older my eyes sway in darkness
fly fly
cold water open wings
your shirt hardening the smell of paint and sweat
I shudder against you some words collapse
in the backyard you me Sean sing
a 3rd a 5th a 1st? See You Later Jack
the tiny synthesizer turning your face into a child’s
very moving he said
the mattress
languid on the chainlink
ridiculous map of the heart come here baby
let’s share a screen
let’s forget the hard thing
After Trees Took Flame
Where black obelisks of branchless trees
Where snow brightly collapses
Where flaying sun silvery grasses
Where deer sleep and press the grass
In the shape of their breathing
Where the coyote’s body lies draped across the rock
Where the blood darkens its lips
Fur trembling alive in wind
Worlds pile onto worlds what I meant to say when
Because you make the thing run
You carry me as if in your arms
Because it’s you who drives the night
You carry me as if in your arms
No other pleasure comes
My need for you runs out with the field
Flannery McAleer lives in Austin, TX.
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