Wednesday, February 20, 2019

new from above/ground press: BODY BIRTH, by Evan Gray

BODY BIRTH
Evan Gray
$5


the field is the body
and the body is impregnated by tense
and the body hangs low, lower
and the windows enter here
and the frailer flannel body
not hard like a used body
and not reshaped like flattened iron
and not a blanket folded with static
stacks for the body begs for all

of poetry, a vile beginning
remaining only with legs
both a bat and both with legs
crawling as if this body
and in another dream that night my face washed in dew

my body
the body girdled with a reed
the body of the message of god
the body of gnashing teeth
the body with mind is now
for without the mind and ripples
slouching back but not romantically

for decay is with the mind
and with the body a shell
of a ghost of with a vapor

a body of perpetual disgrace
a body shut in a memory care unit
and the body is in the field now
and the body is a holler of denial
time and the body spits and chews
and the body aches and sings

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
February 2019
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy


Cover by Austin Blake Mays

Evan Gray is from Jefferson, North Carolina and is the author of two other chapbooks: Blindspot (the Rest (Garden-Door Press, 2018) and Dusk Melody (Shirt Pocket Press, 2019). His essays and poems have been featured in DIAGRAM, Tarpaulin Sky, Yalobusha Review, Word For / Word, and others. He currently lives and teaches in Pittsburgh, PA.

To order, send cheques (add $1 for postage; in US, add $2; outside North America, add $5) to: rob mclennan, 2423 Alta Vista Drive, Ottawa ON K1H 7M9. E-transfer or PayPal at at rob_mclennan (at) hotmail.com or the PayPal button at www.robmclennan.blogspot.com

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