stunts
and forfeits for two and four
by terrence chiusano
1
(On) the upward thousand
rococo intricacies juice (on): swing new
shiny, new slack, new curve and a pattern presented
through various directions
are written that to make them still clearer...many
diagrams showing
position are included, but no apology's needed here
—though vehicles might
have small variations; repeat: inventing their own.
Thus, I remember
you still, I see you again—phantasm reduced
to mere gesture: hog
2
swilling at a slop-trough;
a fine inscrutable balance of ensemble
somehow got pressed on the film-score; "blood-
work-up"or "study"
the knots, spread crescents read as stress-fractures
spidering a universal
grammar of treasured islands creeping so very...
got some white
unwritten thread, spooky corners, elaborate hand-
books for those
who wish for official rules, but let's...letitslide...
though described
3
in this are many: a typical
turn-up, cross-section, number relay, warm
tap-beer, torn cushions, barmaid, O the Pennsylvania
of a white shirt sleeve,
Ohio, the places you've seen, every in-between...
sets coves of rhythm,
crushed tones, alleluya; a nywe werke graded then
patterned after the number
of each is indicated, as are pinpoint—then do set-
piece, pulls and rills,
put as separate-to-be-cut-from, section. But let's
pitch it blunt: 1 has for 2
4
that are only variations
of 1 are grouped together—blenched,
isolate; form judged to be original thin fold-in 's
complementary
and aligned and set in motion by (proximate to,
crank-started by)...
first, chase of its own ass-end down placed first,
considerable effort
expended to locate, identify, retrieve, log, tabulate
and diagram
variant names administered in different districts
to same lines leading
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itself where another
name follows title connected by the word
"or"—it's simply another title sometimes assigned
to names beneath
the title, a stunt done as a penalty or making
a foul. Say hello
to a new Jazz Age. Robin's-egg blue, little-
boy pillow-blue,
absolute—that: pinpoint (expanse) prickle: that—
really extends itself;
so much more than timing from the official
manufacturer, a need
6
for sympathy to bend
for the common result / framework(-up)
in time. That doesn't spell earlier. Modeling
variation (trace of
'bowled-itself-over-on') as crucial decussate cross-
way (to not slow it far
enough into the photographable) keeps telling it.
For instance: bone-
white porcelain sink, single hair gummed, say, nib-
not cross-wise, so
it zeroes in the hole—color of reed pen, dried corn-
husk or loft-straw,
7
or midrib of early season
maple leaf; for instance: darkness: 2
corpses caught lolling at the elbow of a stagnant
river. That's all.
Or the phone rings: "francis: this rotten July heat
—hordes of house-
flies, miswired ceiling fans—sun so hot I nearly
froze to death—
hang on...a poem for you...'darkness: 4 bags
of bones collared
in the ankle of a dry riverbed.'"Attention: so...
hook-and-eye,
8
so...hand-held. Attention:
so...interrupted couplet, so much more
than timing from the official manufacturer the book
is made to last, so...active,
borne about, dependent, so...pinpoint—sometimes
recovery postponed
by homesickness and fretting. No Work Tomorrow,
What Do We Do
About Forgetting? One who pays this forfeit stands
center of parlor-room,
announces: "Walking the Cedar Swamp" (a variation
is Boulevard of Broken
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Jars)—each
of the others
may ask anything. When they answer, if
the answer is "yes," they step forward, if "no"
back-
ward: they want
to get across the room. Such must have obvious
limitations; should be
absorbing, but not exciting. Others may be adapted
for 2, this played
with a box of letters or may make the letters them-
selves if every stitch
of exchange not mentioned: one prints some word
on a sheet and tears
10
in such a way each piece
contains one letter-place, but does not
arrange. They may guess by simply looking
or writing or asking if
it's the initial letter of some object in the room: not
languishing, just waiting,
until we've caught beneath it like sand-pebbles
in bed-sheets, horseflies
in stinking July heat, what's hiding. And maybe
when they leave
the one who's "it" says, "I'm thinking of a
word
that rhymes with..." perhaps
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make first on R. say,
"Perhaps...s-a-y it's something to gather
up hay?" Say, "No—it's not a rake." So it
goes
'round—numbered,
cocked half in the gunnysack, drawstring in hand,
remainder stand
slack (lolled, collared). All those "even" then leave
the room, those "odd,"
to resume, stay behind and choose. During the last
5 there's a growing
tendency to emphasize, so it includes to decide
those outside, and are told
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to divine a word to rhyme
against...perhaps they think the word
is "beat," so they act to beat, next time they may
try "treat." When
guessed, groups change places, when guessed again
maybe they go home
to try their luck, or maybe that's a-good-couple-
years-dead-already...so
say half go out—though everyone's in a hurry, no
one must run. Those who
stay decide which one, soon as outside the length-
of-outline, drops
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back, into-the-only-other-
passage, makes motions of which they ask
the others if they're outside them long hours. Right:
naked, exhausted,
we rest, then take the place of, act out some other
fraction, some growing
tendency to emphasize, step out and be gone:
a special for 2,
some reciprocal chance, or an amusing or difficult
performance executed
to make fun for the others; is the same way as outside
comes in: say "other
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side asks first side"—say
"replies second side"—say "first side
now does like second," tries to "what're-they-
if...." Right: loosen,
heap, unable to keep their turn not to perform...
you can see maybe
"ground" divided to 3 equal (1 blue-ribbon-blue)
each from 10 to 30,
each with its own cue, it's true: middle dubbed
"field" still unpriceable,
unshakeable bodily residue. Divided to couples
of 4s. One couple stays
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back, both smile as if about
to reach an understanding—the others
choose which. From this they skip out shouting,
"Given skinny-of-hot-lead,
re(a)d: smoking gun!"—the others cannot join.
Center tries to catch
either or both from outer counterbalance, but a couple
in the R. field must
not cross into the L. field for safety or vice versa.
Thus given "counter-
balance" I could counterbalance my tell-tale too
aptness to force the tone.
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For instance: snpsht., reg.
pull-out / cut-in. For instance: doubled
lintels hovered above 4-sectional uprights. For
instance: every once
in a while he used to like to dig graves at night up
on the hill behind
the house, they looked like abandoned wellheads
or aborted mine
shafts. We thought it was some sort of prank,
they weren't meant
for anyone. So it was fine with them. After a while
it started taking a long
17
time. You'd fall
asleep waiting for her, but by morning
he'd always be home. A lot of dirt started catching
in our hair, so
they went up there once and hid in the trees while
you shoveled. It was
summer, she wore a loose dress and he wore old
leather boots as we
sang. The moon was pretty bright that night. They
didn't know you
could sing. She rested once and dipped his head
in a streambed nearby.
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It was wet then,
our hair, black as a tar-barrel, matted,
stuck down the middle of the back: it looked
like a crude-oil
slick'd seeped out between the shoulder blades.
Then you got down
and laid in the hole. She kept singing, but he couldn't
make out
the words. It might've been Spanish. The singing
was so loud
we started to cry and ran off. They didn't know you
could speak Spanish.
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Next day she told us
he was sick and had to stay home
from work. After we'd gone down into town
they ran up there
on the hill with the shovel. For instance: I keep light
as a feather, caught
one away from been caught one another—if I had the
time I could re-
muster, re-batch, re-bundle half that snapshot
I titled If I Had the
Time, and still keep an excess of the shortage of the
need to need "the
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need" to knead or re-
imagine itself back into "except." Wait
there: when all are caught, first couple caught
takes place of first
caught until partner caught, then all others go
back to their own—no
couple to step outside the field nor loosen their hold.
A variation:
that all in other fields change and chase in exchange
(requires daring, with
penalties for lack of alertness); another: Barley
Harvest among
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Stacks in the Grain-
field, practically the same except
for the latter, 4 instead of 2, and there's a dialogue
on a doorstep (2
at foot, others sit on the stoop). All these take a color
for their name.
First comes forward, says, "Who's knocking
at the door?"
"The angel with the golden hair." "What do you
want?" "Blue."
If any are named blue they're to step down and join
the ensemble. The first
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then calls again—but
when first fails in naming, second
comes forward and holds the same exchange. Ends
with tug-of-war
when all are asked, divided to one side or another,
re-centered,
joined and remaindered in core—2 or 3 others
to always-outside-
the-ring be blind for one another while slipping under
the arms whenever those
try to hide in their "holes" "center-with"...until
last ones caught in
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center (in 2 facing) clap
and sing a first verse, while the others:
run forward—join—run down-between-the-end-
of—turn—join—
return between the lines—when reached at tip
of line-top,
unclasp—run down to foot where they stay—
then again, next
2 at top run forward, etc.—then next in turn 'til
all have—then
for a last pass, to make a long circuit less tiresome,
2 lines join
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and circle, agree that
if certain given objects, while they're
looking...each given shall have a given, maybe
given as follows:
"larger" to certain rarities..."certain" larger may
be
likewise mentioned
for which fragments are lessened like an open gate;
may also be agreed
scoring's done with tablet and stylus. A similar way
is to now...is to spot
a special; is to be one allowed to count only from
the R., the other from
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the L.—or so I might
argue. But maybe you're right: it's not sure
not to've instead slowed it to the photographable
by reckoning variance
an active crosslet, short but incredibly suite. For
instance: the more
unlimited the degree of generosity of landscape, or
inconvenience and narrowness,
the more unmeasured the welcome and...that if
it follows that it...that if
all absolute limits're screened so no limit's
likely
assumed and...that if
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it follows that it...that if
this is to open with written repeated
(to snare, to sock) it suggests 2 along with its own;
these 3 are then
alternate alongside accelerandos, gloppy slot-
clotted impastos,
rubatos—the 1st and 2nd on every 3rd consecutive
3rd and grouped
5th within context of back-to-opening that lead
such repeated
debuts: a slow unrolls that soon develops to a 3rd
after interlude,
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double-time
of same onset arrives after intrance
(3rd on the "A," incidentally, is 2 opening in 6th
as example "to
request" or "show it already coming laid-out-for").
Note: possib. break
"...foreword..." in half at "shape / that in-between"
1 = forward, 2 = after-
ward, 3 = possib. break "most mentioned" in half
at "...foreword..."
12‹-›8 | 6‹-›8 | 9‹-›8 | 3‹-›
4...whatever stenographers
may care.
all copyright reverts to author