“strong, not unpretty”

Luc Tuymans, The Secretary of State 2005
oil on canvas, 18 x 24-1/4 inches
Courtesy David Zwirner Gallery

here, bullet
brian turner

If a body is what you want,
then here is bone and gristle and flesh.
Here is the clavicle-snapped wish,
the aorta's opened valves, the leap
thought makes at the synaptic gap.
Here is the adrenaline rush you crave,
that inexorable flight, that insane puncture
into heat and blood. And I dare you to finish
what you've started. Because here, Bullet,
here is where I complete the word you bring
hissing through the air, here is where I moan
the barrel's cold esophagus, triggering
my tongue's explosives for the rifling I have
inside of me, each twist of the round
spun deeper, because here, Bullet,
here is where the world ends, every time.


---------------
wages
klipschutz

i'm not earning wages i'm
waging a war not from
the air an uprising of love
love is a book (yes no
yes it is) somebodys torn
the last page out of


------------
america
klipschutz

I want all the women
all the money
and all the fun

I want every rainbow
all the marbles
and a personalized introduction to God

I want a death list
transparent skin
and a cat with no fur

I want everything
I have nothing
I will negotiate

-------
he looked out the window and said
klipschutz

-- see how blue the sky is?

When I'm not drinking,
that's the color
of my eyes.