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the pressure of holding sphincter of holding court of the sphincter hold scepter fair upright sit up right hold scepter fair hold sphincter this is an open court all inquiries will be addressed to those in the choir that is the pulpit of gossip hear now hear with a sigh of several last night’s holdings hear the new saga of sages sung clippings these toenails are far too long to make nice plainly far too dulled to anger they are poised & positioned in waiting an act of grace I cruise coffins for steam I cruise coffins for steam

 

/

 

                                                            hiss orientation the direction of piss hits the dirt by the trellis a relic of burnt roadside clamor // pert midwestern stammer I can hear the yarrow stutter in a mouth or a bowl cut to nowhere o idol of whose matter naught is frivolous the thread spinner hard rot dislodge frum mother bone tends to colon cool it how much would I cover eyes ears mouth every toe and finger not once but many a time

 

/

 

of hair flaxen bone decorum of cervix candid may coptic cures guard the blesséd of these brambles may propagate

may graft & hybridize

may breed in in//

tolerable climates

may breed in in//

discreet lairs

 

/

 

hives creep as ivy the morning glory on the balcony clung tight wrapped the blu columns frum breath it’s a snake round a neck · a hand cupped to back pockets · excuse me sir sir sir excuse me sir we don’t excuse me sir we don’t use our teeth like that in this sir we don’t we don’t use our claws like that sir in this house we don’t bite sir we just – nibble

 

/

 

there’s a fire reaching peaks of five kilometers somewhere north of here & south of Portland that S could read from the airplane · the older customer called it unfightable might as well go circling yr wheels if there isn’t a structure there isn’t a chance · S has a friend in New Mexico been doing it so long he’s the legend who watches · his mentor’s there to speak strategy reporting there’s never been a worse season

 

/

 

lighting this spliff in my room like a naughty boy sends shots upward in nostrils stuck behind glasses flames tickle · linger kerosene shimmers residual drippage the shorn memory muscles from the agents added · sense triggers a state · like at 16 breaking out frum under/boy pulled the tower when the candle hollered & the family’s crystal shattered · it’s about time to take the sickness serious now lethargic read · forgetful // not working

 

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it’s nighttime in Austria where E & his grandmother put the stolperstein in the pavement amidst the hullaballoo of the mayor the local paper they’ve been planning the ceremony for at least a year now for E’s great-great-aunt deportiert 1942 maly trostinec ermordet 15.6.1942 hier wohnte Julie Spitz may it be bound in earth thru cement drying bound to the white rose by the wand of the grotto bind E when walking cobbled these stones of the city cobbled bind underfoot above water

 

/

 

this third freedom flotilla was raided as expected eyewitness accounts claim the Israeli navy beat passengers stole thousands of dollars & antibiotics from the boat of return there is no return when the phone rings it’ll say yr at risk of trespass with these new laws no blood that isn’t the blood of power is welcome on the sands of monotheism hear ring maritime law resound across din winds when the warships rode up with the speedboats all masked bound international waters mark & grace innocent passage

 

/

 

Dr. Swee Ang writes for mondoweiss : “we the six women on board al-Awda … completely humiliate us … dehumanize us … shocked … petty theft and their treatment … international women prisoners … without decent notice … reminded of our vulnerability … they would have preferred to kill us … of course the publicity … that is, if we had been Palestinians … while on the seas one week they had shot dead seven wounded more than ninety … shut down fuel & food : this is an attack … on the ability to defend”

 

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al-Awda, Arabic for ‘the return’ - the name of an organization for the right to return in turn they call for the dissolution of apartheid laws & settlements & demand reparations this week’s torah portion is re’eh in extensions of the sixth reading Moses instructs how to open hands to kinsfolk & neighbors further continuation : if a fellow is sold into servitude, the fellow would serve six years, the seventh go free with parting gifts there is biblical faith in reparative compensation following periods of servitude decolonial ropes bind us to local & transnational justice to o//pen

 

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the child of bronze age theology & the ghosts of the floorboards & closets I’ve been gone before seen frum up hi & down lo this rotten garden railed its odor frum windos the veranda testament to trapdoors of the overgrown attic a headspace bless D & bind T in LA, Austin, or back in Poughkeepsie the neo-queer grimoire of gut flora hark the eyes of those who’ve passed in binding at the wake on Sawtelle the constant dribble of the 405 a//drowning

 

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I ADJURE YOU by yr powers & yr amulets &

places where you dwell & yr names that just as I take you

so may you take me & bind here this chestful of

jewelry so may I bind us in armor of faeries a queendom

poised at the gates we might open to swallow the

fistfuls of enemies

 

/

 

fir//e baptism // thundr perfect

 

/

 

with water with the

holy spirit & with fir   e

 

/

 

                        a beloved

 

                        to me a cluster

 

                        henna blossoms

 

                        in the vineyards

 

/

 

pigeon grass    vervain

wreathes the    heads for

 

sympathy a      snapdragon

doghead in      mouths

 

inhibits            speech

 

/

 

                        a sachet

 

                        my spikenard

 

                        verdant indeed

 

                        is our couch

 

/

 

a pebble with  a number

bring me          grapevines

 

& juniper         myrrh &

frankincense    mastic &

 

spread linen     the chalice

 

/

 

                        [I am…]

 

                       of the natures

 

                       [I am…]

 

                       (3 lines missing)

 

/

 

chrysanthemum in hand knot

grass underfoot together a seal