Douglas Barbour & Sheila E. Murphy
Continuations CVI:
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Continuations CVI:
a song sung only
               a particular one of many
there upon a platform shoed
into this or that argument toward
a future fair yield yet not a
               bene fit for one intended ear
nebulous fit     desire and plan
               shored up in twinned form
                              intrinsic               truncated
gesture arduous               the spun
               throngs dis-mature themselves
                              (un)prompted by the platform
the sprung thongs manifest a jest
               sure to alert (or alter)
imagination s ought out
               thinking / caught out
cutting cornered concern
               s having loss to lose
out of concern               one speaks
               of piques                ad valorem
                              with or sans imagination
sure of self and little
               else(wise)        cornering
                              loss by way of fest
or vest all covered a breast
               of new developments
or so some they will say
               will sway a crowd of
               daffy fellows fools
                              for a siren s(tr)ong
restive flexing                veils un-mellow
               strays to daft pursuits
                              risen through rungs
sprung over a view of
               om                     as withered
                              in common psyche
incommunicado or psyched to hide
               till a chants encounter lead
                              s to peddled prevarications
holding dominion over minds but part
               way mended (that s melded
               welded to some dream of power
enhancements peddled hold
               just as the heart lets go
                              the mind full of itself
a chance      blanches the minions
                                             following behind
               where they (be)long still blindly striving
a snowfall of white papers thrown
               out (down) unread / deliberate
refusal chancy choice quotes
               rations torn out worn out
               verses curses only
                              against the chosen other
use(d)                 worn                 cursed
               gain                  at the height of
                              professional   quotas
                                             of crumbs reached for
               ahead of others               averse
                              to sharing           what is owned
what is known is only what is owned
               not up to no good
can come of these against those
               all for not no knotty
               conundrums beating
                              heartland lacking the beginning
statistics               class     negates               the improbable
               instance of     no goodness of fit
                              knots   obstacular in their
                                             way     weigh in
to win attention   beating               albeit unjustly
               would appear                  to simplify
too simple fie a fig for a gig
               a bite off the oldest apple
               pie or po faced fused
and fueled on an anger so unfocused it
               can no more know less
               than the nothing sparking fire (storms
strange storms split trees
               light shrills the sky    fuel
                              the app versus the apple
champion focusing on
                              fire ire            choirlets
               spat sing skat lines      to opine
too fine lie cut or slashed
               as trees houses even board
rooms roam in wind black and
               blown a blue(s) air
               Aeolian harpies scare
                              quotes ever lower
lashing out versus moaning
               yields unreasonable      filler in
                              the empties      rife with
flash floods     of losing streaks
                              blown through
yards               psyches          dis-owned
the empirical spike back off
               fractal officiousness
                              too many partitions
behind which watch what
               faked management
                              systems (of a) downturn
a précis amounts to fractional
               fakeage                systematic as watchdogs
                              bleat their officious little
marks in sound space               too many
                              creatures of habit
turn down the struck empire (waste
management) stuck in empirical
               space spectaculars
too much hair raising the anti
               rousing the antebellum bellows
               is that another gun
                              in your prance or
tentacles screech toward
               gunfire               as if
                              rancid spirits had caught
fire                    a hair’s breadth
               be/longing to an other
                              anti-everything
laying about with all arms or
is that flailing failing the test
               y money lords their refusal
a retort unseemly to reason
or enabled doubt of moral high
               ground beneath their boots
lately frailness leaves
               the shell of a report
the season discards                neither knives
               nor dirt               nor fire
morale sinks unable to self
               buoy money’s residue smudges all hands
a kind of char dust
               that broom a clean
sweep stakes too high for
               life to stay a sentence
               writ on water thought
                              heroics lost in mist
rusted takes return the hero
               to a perch from which
a clean break stays
               in focus for the many
                              who rely upon the legendary
as a reason                to sleep
in that darkness thereof one
               speaks not each night
mare more wave than particular
               drowned bookie all bets off
in memoirs penned in absolutes
               black on white alert mess
noir might not protect
               alertness stiff beyond               the threat
                              of light               shrill to see(k)ing
the specific place apart from
               recollection rendered
                              in code that sleeves distinction
slaves distraction a default faulty
               to the last (lie as breath
shoehorned subordination
               subjects always (al)ready objects
               in that ever smaller rear view
                              mirror of souls long vacated
ordinal data makes meaning of
               the up and down the subject
                              of the sentence(d) diminishes
in view until writhing turns
               to others               last in lineage
                              shoved into dwindling place
left empty soon if powers
               off put out beyond the
               event horizon an air
less space less exploration less
               experimentation that reach
               for a future reason would construct
reason’s emptied of event
               the less space               the more power
                              concentrated into
               freedom of reach as prowess
tall mid-air                experiments meanwhile
               prevail               constructively through seasons
a turn and turn again but with
               or against the clock a rock
shadow tossed bossed
               buffed as if pomade could
provide a halo so bright
               it hides the lack of thought beneath
riptide splinters halo primed
               to seem intact                revokes
                              inline online fin-lined
lockdown                ritually
               turned against itself twelve or more
                              embossed containers of valence
Continuations CVII: