punchlines
by
Aaron Tucker
$4
why was the camel unhappy?
it’s still a good
idea to contemplate
while the city
sprawls out in waves
beneath our
apartment balcony:
my father is dead
hit by a car
I land + rush to the
hospital
in time for the
whistle of one lung working
but my father is
dead, mist
later I mow my
mother’s lawn careful to avoid
sporting goods
skeletons + that highway
that barn sprawling
towards the cow field
I let the grass
clippings blow onto the yard
careful to avoid
thinking about that blade
whirling slicing
through the flesh of my hand
slicing through my
arm torso like an ocean drowning
|| a bumper impact
|| a twenty nine story fall
the way a yard might
rush upwards me downward
as if I woke up on a
river shoreline in Montana at sunset
repeating the same
motion that the night takes
rushing downwards
over the mountains
the moon whirls out
+ my mother goes to bed
dreams of my father
pushing the lawnmower
back into the barn
closing locking the door
that blade
hyperlinks to
the grass pouring
out
of my veins onto our
apartment balcony
published in
Ottawa by above/ground press
May 2013
a/g subscribers
receive a complimentary copy
Aaron Tucker’s poetic works and reviews
have been published across Canada. His chapbook, apartments (The Emergency Response Unit), was shortlisted for the 2010 bpNichol Chapbook award. His current project, tentatively titled punchlines, is moving ever slowly
forward. More of his work can be found at aarontucker.ca.
In addition, he is a professor in the English
department at Ryerson University where he is currently teaching essay writing
and digital literacy to first year students.
He is working on learning chess in between
watching his beloved Raptors lose games.
This is Tucker’s second above/ground press
chapbook, after apartments, section three
(2010).
To
order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; outside Canada, add $2) to: rob
mclennan, 402 McLeod St #3, Ottawa ON K2P 1A6 or paypal at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com
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