H _ N G M _ N #3.
poetry, poetics &c.
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Thom Ward
The Howhatwhywherewhen Bone
You can bury it
under iron or asphalt
but itll show up
on your plate the next morning
It smells of ink yet feels like
silk Each of those Hs
are chimneys dropping ash
over Polish fields
Did you know your dog
is in love with your wife
After drinks their bodies make a bone
Despite six billion voice lessons
it always sings a little flat never
thinks to floss
Yesterday it met the skull
of a Palestinian boy
on his way to school
Calcium and magnesium
Calcium and magnesium
Notice that there is no who
The Ballet of the Howhatwhywherewhen Bone
culminates in that irrevocable
pas de deux
memory and desire
as all things French
pirouette to soubresaut
are nullified the tissue
of epiphany collapsing
from its arabesque into a mishmash
of leotards
You watch
performance performance performance
in the comfort of a velvet cushion
Far below
bone strolls across
the stage rips the tutu
off a lifeless ballerina and tries it on
The Contraband of the Howhatwhywherewhen Bone
crosses all borders
and disappears
into marrow intelligence
Which is to say
bone understands
nothings more lucrative
than new behavior
except perhaps conditioned response
The greviances you fire
at friends because you dread
aiming them at foes
Now everyones perfectly fractured
A little opium a little coke
bone drives a truck
over roads without maps
and maps without roads
Whats to fear machine guns why
theyre just cowardly bursts
the chattering of Gods teeth
The Ontological Argument of the Howhatwhywherewhen Bone
attacks the assertion
you have an idea of that
than which nothing greater
can be conceived unless of course
nothing greater is idea
without this thatness
or your mind to attack
the reality
existing in assertion
of that than which
nothing greater
can be conceived
in your mind
unless of course this thatness
be reality and bone be you
The Politics of the Howhatwhywherewhen Bone
is in fact the oldest profession
No contraceptive can stop it
and those lubricated ballots
sliding mister thug into office
You and a thousand others
take to the streets
to protest
Each of your shouts
replicates the sigh miss apathetic makes
as bone enters her
Ticktock ticktock ticktock
bone instructs mister thug
on the ground rules
so gorgeously influenced
by you and a thousand others
Ticktocktick thug is kaput
Oh well
time for another election
The Propaganda of the Howhatwhywherewhen Bone
Better to be the shovel
than the callus or the dirt
The concrete is not concrete
just a projection of self
Who needs the focus of the crocus
if youve got
the magnolias swagger
Problems obfuscate
Answers clarify
Fresh roses for sale
along the road Bring them home
before you play golf
Dont worry
what and why
will take care of where and when
Bone will take care of how
and everything else
The Birth of the Howhatwhywherewhen Bone
happens the moment
the chicken swings the axe
or when the father throws
a football and the son
catches a virus
or when
you run out of eithers
run out of ors
The joy of squashing bugs
isnt the shoes decision
little left for these utensils
to say to the stars
If you take a cup
and scoop all the food
from the bottom of the bag
youll find a white whale
some thirteen blackbirds
and the thought your child
could die before you
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©2005 H_NGM_N. poetry, poetics &c.
editor@h-ngm-n.com
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