Tuesday, January 05, 2016

Tuesday poem #144 : Anne Boyer : THOUGHT LEADER




And what were the thoughts
                                    I thought in those afternoons
                                                               of captainry?
Thought I could do better
thought there were better days
aroused
by depletion  
            thought of the airy currency                         
thought of Diogenes
                                    thought of defacing The Cloud
                        thought there were mattresses
to rise from
thought there were lovers to de-love
thought the metropolis
was thinking nothing --
its mechanisms and circulation --
            a peregrination of a robot through blood
                        thought “augean corpse”                  

            thought of the enlightenment and scissors while
the Ogwalla aquifer thought draught
            Leavenworth thought felons
                        felons thought Rousseau
                                                Rousseau thought chat logs
chatlogs thought utopia and cops

the cops thought rubber bullets, tazers, night sticks, riot gear,
lrads, tear gas, pepper spray, pistols, speed traps, and warrants

the warrants thought juries
the juries thought “What astonishing beauty
arrives at our door!”

                                    the poets thought of the longest table
the longest table thought of banquets
            the banquets thought of Hormel
                                    Hormel thought of Cargill
                                                Cargill thought of biometrics
biometrics thought of infants
the infants thought of arms

and Facebook thought of the people
the people thought of shipping routes
the shipping routes thought that
iphones thought
            we thought of a perfume “fatigue of eternity”
                        thought of another
                        “platitudes, outrage and affection”
                                    all the same you probably thought
                                                where the epic has unspooled
                                                borders and the biopropertarian
thought with which grids and rectangular hearts
                                    I thought I could never think --
those exurb gates
those astral safe rooms                                  
thought the never-thinking thought-leaderless  second-door imperfection

thought I could never
                        thinking in the aporiac hour
                                    thought every thought has its vermin
                                                thinking of the thinking dead


Anne Boyer's latest book is Garments Against Women.

the Tuesday poem is curated by rob mclennan

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