new from above/ground press: punchlines, by Aaron Tucker

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