From “Furthark2K” by Joe Francis Doerr
(Note from KO: Each of these sections is preceded by its own unique graphic symbol, which I can’t reproduce here.)
[peorth] The Game
Putsch comes to mind. in the beer hall the dice
cup clatters, and all the lucky ones laugh
as the unlucky are made to undress.
The scholars are sufficiently vexed: half
translate the lacuna thus [“apple tree”]
while [“penis”] is picked by the other half.
So the odd game remains a mystery.
Its outcome, unfortunately, does not:
we’ve bones, teeth, numbers to tell the story.
[iar] A Sea Creature
I have swam [sic] through libraries and sailed
through oceans…I am…earnest…I will try.
There…preliminaries to [be] settle[d].
Sic[k]bed is it? Suppose that’s apropos.
Cuchullain did some of his best work there.
In a sense, he’d his Leviathan too.
None more troublesome than this mal de mer—
INGREDIENTS: One big white nightmare stalked
by a multicultural crew. Beware.
And one free-standing piece:
Shining Moment (That Is)
You come a lot when you come
you say to me and say
again, I say
in this ‘automystifstical plaice’
the master chiseled for us—
chiseled features, chiseled forest—
chiseled for this place
Of books, of leaves,
the leavings place us;
place of learning, place
of love and leaving, place
that you or I or we one day
will write of as you say.
You come a lot when you come
once you know the way.
Return returning turn of phrase
the troubadour the maker made
the turn of phrase you say.
The saying is the voicing,
and the voicing is the place.
You come a lot when you come,
and once you know the way,
the code
the place
the voice you say
you say you speak
you speak you say
you speak
to the sentinel jay.
You come a lot when you come
and once you know the way
there is no other
other way
there is no other place.