WORKING IT OUT
Start
with a question? No.
Say
nothing. We walk
Down
by the lake.
Take all our clothes off
Without
touching each other
Too
hard. Cracked mud.
The
lake's but a puddle
Of
pickerel. We drape the long ones
Around
our necks. Fish fur.
You
massage the shiny
Mucus
into my temples,
Buttocks.
"Fish oil is
A
good source of vitamin A."
Only
the known is debatable.
Say
nothing. We traverse
The
muck to the cattails, slip
Into
each other, then come
Back home.
Copyright © 2000 by Craig Van
Riper
COO COO
A longer one this
time plays with us
that time two
or three more do
the same thing, just
fly away from it
all of this
was not my idea of
concern for the subject
at hand, my hand
would be too strong to hold
without pressure: the pigeon
breast, rib cage,
hollow bones
quivering.
Copyright © 2000 by Craig Van
Riper
SCREEN
Vancouver,
B.C.
To come forward, piece
together the wind,
the matter at hand lying
a foot away. How many
boats are police
boats? Say five. Call
it "paranoid," call it
"a love poem." The lights
blink & blink. Each drop
falls- a flash, then
gone again. Chameleons
hide & seek without
moving.
Baffling finale of booms:
sulfur
streaks riding the Strait to
the Sound, a running
leotard over dark thigh
of sky. So you offer me
another
fig, arachnid working fast
to repair a gossamer world,
picky, gluttonous,
filmmaker extraordinaire.
Copyright © 2000 by Craig Van
Riper
