Chuck STEBELTON

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I WASN'T THINKING ABOUT YOUR PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION


You just follow new gills. He carved the water
Into many kinds of current. Nose your follow,
Just you. Far away, they are confident in the name
That keeps location swimming. Wet grass, old
Boats far away trust their nerve. One strategy
For calling a new boat something is to forget
The tiny snails that smell when they buzz.

Tacoma is coastal else Ventura is as coastal
As it gets. And I am a sea hag driven by a well
Meant yet partially foul exhale from the window
Bored into her hermit crab's shell. The brown
Line swims, sadly, through tall grass. Now I'm
Leaning down looking at low tide. I was thinking
About you. I wasn't thinking about your public

Transportation. We were drinking, drinking,
Drinking. Drinking coca coca cola. Blood
Schnapps is an orangutan who is also an orange.

And meeting mariners is easy. Drifters always name
Their boats for lozenges, a jar of dollars lit by
Flash flood. The loud bassoons hiss today.
Today is a singular day. Humans like me cannot
Hear beneath. The trillionth day of the dirty
Hundred trilobites in Niwot can help you here.
Now the flannelled messenger is hot. Pickle red
As purple syrah, northern pikes heart muskellunge.
Their eyes are white as oriental mountains
And their tongues are teasing oil from whales.




EIGHTEEN OPALS

In the clearing between things a flamingo flies over Moose.

Having fewer bridges, the geology of Isle Royale is similar.

In agreeing to disagree, pink and black and blue ink cue

a walk on. The icon is pale. The veil is bitter.

Sugar skulls flicker next to lemon scented glass.

This grass is your green imagination. Cedar seems earnest.

The day glitter metal did not die. Cream is contrived. Yet

I wore a dress tropical! Jewel at its ear. You're my confetti.

I'll bring you fists. I'll elect one to Beulah. Plum blossoms

in a fog bait one season word. Yellow leaves the smell of fire

organ notes. The buttery disdain Tuesday for reasons best

set in balloons. The pure joy of the emerald fact documents

a mine, a dime method on a lime rug reflected upside down.




SHELLS OF ORANGE CORVETTES

What did I lose? Orchards to flood! And you? More than a grove.
If the shark stops moving pour grenadine on its tail. What won
against the queen of the eyesores? Stingray? Crown Victoria?

What split windows to moonflower faster? The opposite
of apposite is? Lime green? And the checkered flag must be
remembered. Where is the checkered flag? Past the far blur

of your bones in May? Dual exhaust? Ashes of the flags of which?
My back to the ground? I am you. Is Gorgeous coming? Green
line turns yellow? Sorrel ditches? Scurrilous? Openly confide?

Foxfire? Where were the linnets? And what had people called
us? Chevy Chevrolet? All the books on magic can't help you
now. Quiet Storm? Being boring? Cross the divide to another

ocean? For credibility, for credibility. The spoiler shows what?
A made day? An allowable grace in the midst of inaction? Dry
conditions? Magical slicks? Density rises while heat conducts

itself through metal or glitter conducts? Black iris? A cinema
of snow? Chrome devil in the chin? Head lights? Many moons?
This talk of bees may lead to honey. Pelicans or the mud flap girl?





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