Steve Dalachinsky
Editor's Note: Steve Dalachinsky used to send me large blocks of work as submission — old work, new work, unpublished, published in little magazines or by small presses some years back, enough to be spread across several issues. When that feedstock was getting low I'd let him know, & another slab of his work would be sent for picking through. The above poem is from the last batch he sent, some months before his passing. It is, sadly, the last poem of his that Otoliths will be publishing.
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(of and for allen ginsberg)
outside the streets are potholes and hills the first snow’s rain
inside the world is ugly
climbers find their way to the top the bottom blushes
the world is cramped and ugly
the lines are drawn spaces paced
he says he was abducted by aliens in the 60's
arms drooping with wounds blue feet swollen
dollars delivered as marks stigmata
we are all aliens we must all have been abducted
the light surrounding the last stinging leaves
the light it must have been abducted
the final Games of the next to final year
wearing golden circles around our muscles
the holy grail rewriting history in a futile search for our ancestors
those that never existed in the first place
those that will be left at last
we have no origin
we must have been abducted
bottle to beetle
my 3rd day in a foreign land
cloudless grey old city pointing to a window of smoked eel and cold cuts
cut shaving
my dream of young boys stealing young girls’ youth
the clouds what can i say about the clouds
the stream says something it must have been abducted
the trees the obsessional behavior converting dollars to marks
counting over and over again
my sleep it must have been abducted
the wind abducted
coal mine soft beer salami coffee tea
everywhere mcdonald’s forest trash big dogs small dogs abduction
nettles brick horse shit toilets
young boys stealing young girls’ youth
kind pineapple nightfall
night and its cohorts must have been abducted
moon meat sky night and its contingency
art without connection
over and over again hours without connection
limbs without connection
merchant
terrorist on a suicide mission without a mission
filtering information
if it works i will call it street airport days desires boom #’s bleeding
pockets mustard embrace poetry diahrea sausage asuage speech butter buns
spoilage pothole hill snow ugly bottom
the bottom’s up
it must have been abducted
the breathing bee
it must have been abducted
light and light house
soap prayer survival trauma
accident loss skyscraper future
abducted country without connection
flirting with information
half spoon shot shiitake
sliced
my muscles caught in the broth
skin partially peeled
up all night
brooding solitary jackoff
already the lonely powers of state
usurping the tenement streets
the fallen lamps they must have been abducted
blind tears of death on a ghostly stone
structures and machinery
dissolved in the green salt of nothing and nowhere
alone
oh tender miseries you must have been abducted
wrapped within a confession of shame
a piece of meat half baked
the vegetable mind sitting on the window transformed
the flamenco strains of montoya
beating against the frame with his fingers
the scratches and clicks the deep groove dips of the needle
resounding with his pulse
the pop the sugar and the cup
the soul rending creak
they must have been abducted
the mountains atop the tracks
the pebbles beneath the skin
hungry neighbors gnawing at my plaster walls
rust colored vocal chords
difficult to stop breathing
so difficult to stop breathing
my breath it must have been abducted
responding over and over again
story without connection
life without connection
song without connection
radio stream ripple bell
over and over again
3 days in a foreign body
i work on something
to create something
if it works i will call it something
sky without connection
i visualize it
counting over and over
again
cables wires information
i create it
and if it works i will call it
moon / meat
cloud / war
labor fulfilled
craft illustrated
a long walk
a day
maybe i will call it a day
man canoe power station fumes
must have been abducted
speech silence tenderness death
must have been abducted
glass telephone tequila stubs
must have been abducted
dirty collars
must have been abducted
cacti envelopes shudders wheels
must have been abducted
smiles wills sandwiches must have been abducted
the human heart
it must have been abducted
some of these words
surely were abducted
these nightmares
must have been abducted
the lower east side
the ultimate railroad night
must have been abducted
the gates of iron mesh
must have been abducted
newly resurrected pipes
surely were abducted
lawyers croakers and spectral luminaries
must have been abducted
these hands these hands
must have been abducted
these eyes these knees this rounding belly
must have been abducted
belly aching epiphanies
movies shadows
blankets wallets keys
ecstatic seraphim
insatiate incantations
bridges hell enchantment
must have been
abducted
sawdust ashes dynamo
must have been abducted
sunflower must have been abducted
poor dead industrial hour must have been abducted
must have been abducted must have been abducted abducted abducted.....
nyc 11/2000 & 12/2000
Editor's Note: Steve Dalachinsky used to send me large blocks of work as submission — old work, new work, unpublished, published in little magazines or by small presses some years back, enough to be spread across several issues. When that feedstock was getting low I'd let him know, & another slab of his work would be sent for picking through. The above poem is from the last batch he sent, some months before his passing. It is, sadly, the last poem of his that Otoliths will be publishing.