new from above/ground press: Elegiac Verses, by Mark Scroggins

Elegiac Verses
Mark Scroggins
$5

    4SB

Jaunty the porkpie, and jaunty
    the cigarette angle. Shard
broken off something hard
    and luminous penetrating
uncomfortable light—eclipsed,
    we shrink from unalloyed
heat, wit-sharpened rage to melt
    pretense and carefully curated
social mechanism. Dystopia a cliché,
    but still reality, total.
Vox clamantis in the street, or from
    the balcony of some tower-
block apartment, glass concrete
    I imagine and metal.
(Metal, metal—flesh so fragile.)
    Money’s sour breath, or light
glancing momentarily off spun
    filaments curious necessary
impertinent webbing of words
    in cold sun air.

published in Ottawa by above/ground press
June 2020
a/g subscribers receive a complimentary copy

Mark Scroggins is the author of four previous collections of poetry, the most recent being Pressure Dressing (MadHat, 2018). The first fifty sections of Zion Offramp are forthcoming as a single volume.

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