Chuck STEBELTON
FLAGS AND BANNERS
The crowd upon their rambling exercise
And their feet were straight feet
and the sole of their feet was like
the sole of a calf's foot; and they sparkled
like the copper of burnished brass.
And they had the hands of a man under
their wings on their
four sides, and they four had their faces
and their wings. Their wings were joined
to another corrective;
they turned not when they went, then went
every one straight forward.
NATAL PLUM
This myth proposes that it cast itself properly.
Ferns can chain link a mansion in the snow.
My charmed try resulted in hope, again.
Last time I walk back down Metropolitan.
The revenant dreams a dream of history.
Bllossom wwill little hummingbiird. Collect
single gloves in the spirit of countless stars.
Monday, you're even. Tuesday seems
a bloody fuss no matter how rosy the stone.
Kiarostami says I tell little lies. Green hills,
cold, fold ruminants in their peaceable dream.
Natal Plum, Blue Rug or Wilton Carpet Juniper.
Flowering Quince, and Afghan Ash instanter.
SLOTH LITE
After our gig, trilobites. “KAR-A-O-KE.”
There are theaters in the Golden Age. It begins
In the proscenium and it continues in the pit.
Tetters, ribeye. My hands are tied.
Two thousand one. One one thousand.
Three one thousand.
Four one thousand. There will be power
in the blood. “When that helicopter comes.”
SOLDIER’S JOY
A town is at fault and it supposes.
We’ve cut our hair and faked our deaths.
Agreement ensues. The name I gave
to my most excellent spring was winter.
The mothball has it that cupid’s back
is a bullseye. That fall, the evening
hung ready in the hints. Like capitals
in cursive, the cues swell. Indicators
follow paste. The subtle coppers
often appreciate. An orchid, city sick
armed the floor with gears forming.
THE URBIS ORBISES OF THE WORLD
I am careful to count the reason the world slips
its planter for exuberance. Everybody’s ragtime
ephemera pierce the frond’s heart. The piss of
hot steel in the water. The ground wire one dragonfly
mounting another coppers wet to ruby fur. To cylinder
one barrel, belly odious, thirty nine came to fortify me.
Rifling the wind, the old door opens and closes it off.
Two dragonflies, one emerald on female
pass in the air among an oak knee.
Ten thousand to Carlisle came. In the clique of that bog
a politics might break out. I oppose the word
conchology. Kiss meat may yet out tiger the lemon shark.
Always winded, always out whelks, the yellow stripe
will carry us. An iceberg sunk unceasing sea.
One desires to touch its buckled shells with plastic.
One changes them into velvet with velvet scrapes.
CARYATID
You would allow a dogwood
and in this indiscriminate climate
I am sure I am you. I lay claim
to their public. You talk to the
trees. They become a continuum.
I grace the Secaucus in Gary.
The lake is all. The beach is black.
All Anabaptists are sectarian
and I am sometimes violent.
A tautonym becomes you.
I am no exception to this rule.
Mine are incidental. Lengths
and the invasion of wood
hesitate. I should expect sun
to air the cover. Bark, paper are
eggshell against the darker
monochord. Code of honor
bodybuilder and sportsman
confused for cast. The plaster
bakes us each a column of air.
back