February 3, 2024
Voice(s)
Sam Rasnake
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– after “Paprika Plains,” Joni Mitchell There’s been a murder in this town. There’s always a murder in this town. There are mushrooms, a piano, and the highway – always a highway – and a storm – What about the storm? Dreams would be nothing, I’m saying, without a storm drifting through it. Gives it balance – whatever “it” is. So…you’re not worried about these killers? Who are you talking to? Have you thought about that at all? Kind of scary. Yes, kind of scary.
Next day Storms here again, all night. Tiny breaks between deafening stillness, an all-out war on the ears. Everything. Then, nothing. But maybe that’s how it’s always been – a sudden fall, a hard grab. No floating off, no slinking away into a supposed oblivion. We are who we are. Yeah, I know. It is what it is. What happens – What do you mean what happens? What happens when we lose our link with nature? We’ll have no place to stand. My lips are sealed. What will happen when we lose our link with the self? Ah, now you believe in the self? Isn’t that awkward. I’ll just say – I’m not myself today. Next night When I was a kid, I kept a radio beneath my pillow. Waves from 1000 miles away – Judy in disguise … The day destroys the night … Hello darkness, my old friend… All the leaves are brown … Goo goo g’joob … And my world was shaped. Wouldn’t it have been great to have one of those mirrored balls in your room when you were young? Turning. To go with the music. I would’ve never slept. But you didn’t sleep then anyway. That’s true. I close my eyelids, but I don’t sleep. I look at the universe. Then or now? Always. I’m on an island, floating. I float. Sometimes I land. Outside, the rain is pelting the window. I don’t mean to add to whatever this is, but it is raining. Of course it is. And I’m floating. Floating. Everything is smaller. And smaller. And… And? And.
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Sam Rasnake’s works have appeared in Wigleaf, Drunken Boat, UCity Review,MiPOesias, Best of the Net, Southern Poetry Anthology, A Cluster of Lights, and Bending Genres Anthology. He’s the author of Cinéma Vérité (A-Minor Press), World within the World (Cyberwit), and Like a Thread to Follow (forthcoming, Cyberwit). Follow Sam on Bluesky @samrasnake.bsky.social or Twitter @SamRasnake.
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Posted in All Hybrid: This Is It and tagged in #boudin, #poetry, Hybrid, Poetry