new from above/ground press: Dang Me, by ryan fitzpatrick

Dang Me
ryan fitzpatrick
$5

Shouldn’t We Liquidate Poetics?

What do I do when someone holds up a mirror
and it’s just a picture of Irving Layton wearing
sunglasses stolen from the “Deal With It” dog?

It’s Brechtian, you know, the way the sun careens
off the glass enclosures of this Toronto tech
hub directly off this screen and into my eyes.

Everywhere I look, it’s a funhouse where light
serializes experience into a million sources
and I’m left to fumble with the cables behind.

But that’s a metaphor, isn’t it, and here I am
with my reflection. No, what I mean is I’m
here reflecting as if my life depended on it.

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

cover illustration by Rose McLennan

ryan fitzpatrick is the author of two books and fifteen chapbooks, including Fortified Castles (Talon, 2014) and Fake Math (Snare/Invisible, 2007). Right now, he lives in Toronto/Tkaronto, but might be between cities soon.

This is fitzpatrick’s fourth above/ground press title, after STANZAS #25 (“further revisions,” July 2001), Adolesce (2005) and dealingwithit.gif (2015).

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