OPEN DARK
Zero rolls under
darkness.
Tongue on pause.
Head moves
across floor.
Ears fall off.
Pick them up.
Put them back
into the face of an eye.
Read
with glasses shaped
like light bulbs.
Shake
blank paper
there are no periods.
Blink a caesura.
Use white
ink
to write with.
LOWER CASE I AND J
Man
with one leg,
no arms,
wears black suit,
white
neck
tie.
Woman
in black dress,
white scarf,
no
arms too.
On white
sheet
both attend
paper funeral
inking tears.
But you
can put
a hyphen
between
them:
Look
IMAGES OF MYSELF
A sentence stands up. Skeleton slips on a period.
I
was trying to walk off
the
page.
Letters scattered.
The
A unfolded
into
an N.
The
T landed on
its head
with one leg.
The
H tipped over.
The
E cannot get
back up.
The
R dismantled
is a D.
One of the O’s rolled off
but the other one never moved.
And the shattered pieces?
Bones fragments
left
over for
punctuation marks.
FILL IN THE BLANK
1.
Inhale dots.
Breathe out
ink dust.
It will appear
on air
like black
fingerprints of
flies.
2.
Alphabet:
a shattered skeleton
lying on the
x-ray table.
3.
Let punctuation
connect the
bones.
4.
Empty a pen’s
shadow onto
the blank
paper.
Ink: proof of existence.
5.
The cursor
can re-create it
with its hand.
6.
After the pen punctures
a period
BLANK CIRCLE
Soak eyes
in white.
Erase ears.
Listen with O’s
on head.
Put nose
in bleach.
Sniff discoloring.
Peel zero
from a page
eat it.
Does it taste like Styrofoam or a tooth?
Rub blank paper
inside socket of skull.
Remove hands
place
in envelopes.
Drop them
into the mailbox
THE i IS A CRICKET
The book is open.
Can you hear
and see
the cricket?
Listen.
It sounds as if
someone is rubbing
the bristles
of two combs together.
Look closer.
Arms are struggling
like an upside down fly,
like a blinking eyelash.
Touch it.
And you will feel
tiny hairs on its legs.
There is a letter
on the page
that has bent legs.
Before you close
the book
let it leap off the paper.