GEMOLOGY
GEMOLOGY
ŠMegan Kaminski 2012
Many thanks to the following journals where some of these poems first appeared: Eleven Eleven Journal, Everyday Genius, and the South Dakota Review.
LRL little red leaves textile editions www.littleredleaves.com
ŠMegan Kaminski 2012
Many thanks to the following journals where some of these poems first appeared: Eleven Eleven Journal, Everyday Genius, and the South Dakota Review.
LRL little red leaves textile editions www.littleredleaves.com
GEMOLOGY Megan Kaminski
GEMOLOGY Megan Kaminski
I put on for my city, on on for my city —Young Jeezy, The Recession
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I put on for my city, on on for my city —Young Jeezy, The Recession
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Dear cabbie, dear comfort perchance could you drive faster ruefully abide your own speaking space we’ll wrangle sweet nothings through that window if you like it’s only plexiglass my dear plastic really that keep us apart just split the avenue open vivisect districts flower shops mechanics pantries glow orange green silver as we pass
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Dear cabbie, dear comfort perchance could you drive faster ruefully abide your own speaking space we’ll wrangle sweet nothings through that window if you like it’s only plexiglass my dear plastic really that keep us apart just split the avenue open vivisect districts flower shops mechanics pantries glow orange green silver as we pass
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Name me perception name me economy rows of turnstops lanes of traffic halls cubicles queues order number and sign away my body one department or another buildings formed of wire of string ink-soaked walls erase each night cobalt blue bone white gold leaf dissolved on tongues I remember a murmuring of sparking or darkling elapsing trafficways glorietas entombed plucked skull-deep
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Name me perception name me economy rows of turnstops lanes of traffic halls cubicles queues order number and sign away my body one department or another buildings formed of wire of string ink-soaked walls erase each night cobalt blue bone white gold leaf dissolved on tongues I remember a murmuring of sparking or darkling elapsing trafficways glorietas entombed plucked skull-deep
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We implore you exhale city smoke and invite us within garneted sanctuary damp caven architectures making way songs and bodies rending walls porous to sound silken soiled mothers dreaming northern passages coiling silver wire skeletal mild beneath the unexhumed night sulfur traces sully duchess cut dresses shape us into other sizes other emanations
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We implore you exhale city smoke and invite us within garneted sanctuary damp caven architectures making way songs and bodies rending walls porous to sound silken soiled mothers dreaming northern passages coiling silver wire skeletal mild beneath the unexhumed night sulfur traces sully duchess cut dresses shape us into other sizes other emanations
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Dear neighborhood, dear block sell your last square inches for a tenner it’s cold today and I’d like to go inside drip jewels and watch far from the crowds and dockets garnets sweet sodalite veins dear city I want to crawl inside your chest ply rib by rib by rib and slip soft extol your innerworks colder sounds
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Dear neighborhood, dear block sell your last square inches for a tenner it’s cold today and I’d like to go inside drip jewels and watch far from the crowds and dockets garnets sweet sodalite veins dear city I want to crawl inside your chest ply rib by rib by rib and slip soft extol your innerworks colder sounds
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Vowels roll drip down thighs conjunctions across backs ankles necks secret places silk feathers curling horns gold chains old rags smelling of animal I put on my city buildings cafes shops soft text keening through silence and explosion through parts of throbbing city built line on line body on body alphabet buried beneath street concrete-riverbed-city cross-sectioned-fluid-fattened
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Vowels roll drip down thighs conjunctions across backs ankles necks secret places silk feathers curling horns gold chains old rags smelling of animal I put on my city buildings cafes shops soft text keening through silence and explosion through parts of throbbing city built line on line body on body alphabet buried beneath street concrete-riverbed-city cross-sectioned-fluid-fattened
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Name me modesty name me vexation I travel further into the night buildings cast shadows neon gilds faces passing bejewels crows listing warnings scrawled on flesh yesterday’s skin bound west my lips spell treason carry seeds longings asphalt eyes knee deep forgotten blocks carve brainward back-bound debt-ridden deep city mortgage-backed shoulder carry
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Name me modesty name me vexation I travel further into the night buildings cast shadows neon gilds faces passing bejewels crows listing warnings scrawled on flesh yesterday’s skin bound west my lips spell treason carry seeds longings asphalt eyes knee deep forgotten blocks carve brainward back-bound debt-ridden deep city mortgage-backed shoulder carry
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Dear tourniquet, dear overbite why not sit still for a moment and quiet too these are places to wait inside nails scratching under wardrobes long hairs in sinks shadows cabinets toweled under beds not hotels just places teeth sink into long arms linger before touching the switch add another notch to the weathered chaise leave some for the boneman the baker
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Dear tourniquet, dear overbite why not sit still for a moment and quiet too these are places to wait inside nails scratching under wardrobes long hairs in sinks shadows cabinets toweled under beds not hotels just places teeth sink into long arms linger before touching the switch add another notch to the weathered chaise leave some for the boneman the baker
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Name me transient name me obligatory I’ll carry eyes in my pockets finger them down palms scatter amongst poppies community gardens warrants against forgetting lacerate flesh with silver tongues sashimi cerviche tare tare dependent neighborhood district season ( leaves burnish under weight turn carpet turn mush turn dirty water ) I’ll group them together don’t worry keep household tidy tether words to concerns bodegas brick walls wrought iron
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Name me transient name me obligatory I’ll carry eyes in my pockets finger them down palms scatter amongst poppies community gardens warrants against forgetting lacerate flesh with silver tongues sashimi cerviche tare tare dependent neighborhood district season ( leaves burnish under weight turn carpet turn mush turn dirty water ) I’ll group them together don’t worry keep household tidy tether words to concerns bodegas brick walls wrought iron
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Name me hindsight name me plenty if you’d let me I’d show you dark spots stretching down sun secret doors entries to backroom upon backroom I’d pick up my pencil draw blueprints wrangle trunks mallets creams made ginger mallow you might capture the city I lost last year ( stuff its corpse with steel wool charred tissue mechanical entrails ) promise to bring back the remnants rosaries of fingers and toes button eyes button nose bring me back to light carry me in soft palms
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Name me hindsight name me plenty if you’d let me I’d show you dark spots stretching down sun secret doors entries to backroom upon backroom I’d pick up my pencil draw blueprints wrangle trunks mallets creams made ginger mallow you might capture the city I lost last year ( stuff its corpse with steel wool charred tissue mechanical entrails ) promise to bring back the remnants rosaries of fingers and toes button eyes button nose bring me back to light carry me in soft palms
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Dear neighbor, dear Liberty you are probably not a terrorist severing fingers detaching buttons disrupting the state of the State if you’d like to come over for cocoa maybe I could help organize the hall closet or take over the bodega stitch you a scarf to keep out the cold dear sir I would like to cuddle you softly hold your brow against the crook of my neck
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Dear neighbor, dear Liberty you are probably not a terrorist severing fingers detaching buttons disrupting the state of the State if you’d like to come over for cocoa maybe I could help organize the hall closet or take over the bodega stitch you a scarf to keep out the cold dear sir I would like to cuddle you softly hold your brow against the crook of my neck
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Fingers extract chips from powder insert stories patterned from earth and stone metal embeds in skin singed hair furrowed brow under fluorescents machine hum time card punch evening drawls overtime across tables starred night reflects off asphalt out windows hatched with metal out far further than our eyes may see kisses linger ruby-lined-wrist
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Fingers extract chips from powder insert stories patterned from earth and stone metal embeds in skin singed hair furrowed brow under fluorescents machine hum time card punch evening drawls overtime across tables starred night reflects off asphalt out windows hatched with metal out far further than our eyes may see kisses linger ruby-lined-wrist
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Name me princess or lost wages other voices clamor crusty in my gut swallows from a leaky diaphragm feathers green blue plumage puncture landscapes photos cold viscera sequential sequins I’ve lost my Sonia and my Susie gone market among aisles of flowers and fruits spilt perfume sugared bitter across the tongue all cashmere slipped drawers ( what if I split it open melon ripe and red let them all out )
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Name me princess or lost wages other voices clamor crusty in my gut swallows from a leaky diaphragm feathers green blue plumage puncture landscapes photos cold viscera sequential sequins I’ve lost my Sonia and my Susie gone market among aisles of flowers and fruits spilt perfume sugared bitter across the tongue all cashmere slipped drawers ( what if I split it open melon ripe and red let them all out )
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Dear night, dear misplaced images blanketed silver singed crystalline cold I gather icicles sew flack jackets encase late night wonderings parks shadowed sharply street-lit dear avenue if I follow floor me carry me and my lost children wordspent gangrened unburied
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Dear night, dear misplaced images blanketed silver singed crystalline cold I gather icicles sew flack jackets encase late night wonderings parks shadowed sharply street-lit dear avenue if I follow floor me carry me and my lost children wordspent gangrened unburied
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Megan Kaminski lived in Los Angeles, Paris, Casablanca, New York, Virginia and Portland before moving to Lawrence, Kansas, five years ago. Her first book of poetry, Desiring Map, is forthcoming from Coconut Books (2012). She is also the author of four chapbooks, favored daughter (Dancing Girl Press 2012), collection (Dusie, 2011), carry catastrophe (Grey Book Press, 2010), Across Soft Ruins (Scantily Clad Press, 2009), and has a chapbook forthcoming from La Ginestra. She teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Kansas, where she directs the Creative Writing Exchange and the Undergraduate Reading Series. She also curates the Taproom Poetry Series in downtown Lawrence. This little red leaves textile series chapbook was designed and sewn by Dawn Pendergast in Houston, Texas.
Megan Kaminski lived in Los Angeles, Paris, Casablanca, New York, Virginia and Portland before moving to Lawrence, Kansas, five years ago. Her first book of poetry, Desiring Map, is forthcoming from Coconut Books (2012). She is also the author of four chapbooks, favored daughter (Dancing Girl Press 2012), collection (Dusie, 2011), carry catastrophe (Grey Book Press, 2010), Across Soft Ruins (Scantily Clad Press, 2009), and has a chapbook forthcoming from La Ginestra. She teaches creative writing and literature at the University of Kansas, where she directs the Creative Writing Exchange and the Undergraduate Reading Series. She also curates the Taproom Poetry Series in downtown Lawrence. This little red leaves textile series chapbook was designed and sewn by Dawn Pendergast in Houston, Texas.