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TWO POEMS
sculpture
—first published in Lily—
my hands,
filled with wicked silhouettes
are no better empty
for still they
are not eloquent
flashing like prehistoric
fish through traffic
their backbones comprise
spine for my entire catalog
of simple gestures
meant to show ugly love being
pulled slowly into sainthood
as if some pretend russia
I can't describe would be
worth such sirens
my hands, my hands
whose wrinkled escapes
can only be worn by speaking
of rabid immigration
and gentle politics
they soften off the puppet clock
forgetting their tiny warrants
for black nausea and poetry
how strangely my hands
have survived . . .
statehood
—first published in Sein und Werden—
it's belladonna ladyship with penny royal tea
it's a false widow
exchanging porcelain overseas
it's the brittle little cakes that break
as we take sugar from snowflakes
when neanderthal
needs
it's birdseed and beer gardens
the amber fellowship
of reeds
it's coaxing father T.
to number the parts of his heart
while she whispers siamese
outside the park
it's inelegant,
it's prosthesis, a sarcophagus
a touching of cups
it's mother N. whooping it up
at the steps of
enough
Peter Schwartz is the editor of 'eye' and the associate art editor of Mad Hatters' Review. His artwork can be seen all over the Internet but specifically at: www.sitrahahra.com. He has almost 200 poems published in such journals as Porcupine, Vox, and Sein und Werden. Currently he is working on paintings for an exhibit at the Amsterdam Whitney Gallery in Chelsea NYC.
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