DOUGLAS PICCINNINI
Painful Melody
Hey, painful melody--
Hey, animal shape--
in the window
abuzz in mindfeel
overmake an ‘idea’ here--
“I swear like a minute built in formal tears.” Huh?
“I swear like predetermined dawn
drums my mood.” Huh?
I’m empty, eye-slashed, worksore
arranging my hair in my own sincere
diminishing stare.
Hey, animal shape--
in the window
abuzz in mindfeel
overmake an ‘idea’ here--
“I swear like a minute built in formal tears.” Huh?
“I swear like predetermined dawn
drums my mood.” Huh?
I’m empty, eye-slashed, worksore
arranging my hair in my own sincere
diminishing stare.
Beware of Anachronistic Thinking
switching sides--
having no side
a horn of certainty crowds each coming incomplete day
for a brick breaks
my teeth: delete--
for in the bloodspit
home of a day:
the tariff of absence
of “life” and its absence—
to line together, loanwords once “loved”
to lie together and ring my skull:
my signature—in re-
petition, to pause in re-
production, in trans-
mission: released of love
having no side
a horn of certainty crowds each coming incomplete day
for a brick breaks
my teeth: delete--
for in the bloodspit
home of a day:
the tariff of absence
of “life” and its absence—
to line together, loanwords once “loved”
to lie together and ring my skull:
my signature—in re-
petition, to pause in re-
production, in trans-
mission: released of love
Copyright © November 2017 Map Literary and Douglas Piccinnini
Douglas Piccinnini is the author of a book of poems, Blood Oboe (Omnidawn, 2015) and of Story Book: a novella (The Cultural Society, 2015). Some of his recent work has been featured by or will soon appear with The Academy of American Poets’ Poem-a-day, Black Sun Lit, Elderly, Lana Turner, 'Pider, The Poetry Project Newsletter, Prelude, Seattle Review, Tupelo Quarterly, Verse and The Volta.
