Keith Higginbotham
Another Forehead
skins whited the skins of
angels relax into a sideways sky
torches done asphalt done
white winds same white
reruns by the tunnel
mountain space time a flying sound
drop can splitting pastiche the
sidewalk reverses the machine explodes
half-cursive caroming through
the metal street boy late for chapel
Oatmeal Shoes
               for J. D. Nelson
earth thru the baby
in the elf chair
the growling charcoal
horse
the silk hammer
eating the page machine
in a marble island
a glass chain
lamp feathers in
the hand and the hole
Flesh Spiral
morning’s ultimate labyrinth
                              winged
                              an emptiness
all the dead nowhere happy
                              went etched
                              in strokes
                              up
                              the asphalt
                              mist
I of the lonely pale
my skin honeyed in black
contradictions of the narrative’s
backup box of plots
                              a month of surfaces
                              bloods the
                              blur
blindsided and maybe the skin’s
                              stretched clock
                              tight cringes
                              askew
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
a plane you made a canvas
outside the barns
of poverty
damn the road ached
kerosene hung in the bush
damned christ drunk in paris
machine-gunning
eye pots
the men wanted
blood
and handcuffs
drinking night down another drink
the barker wife
her love of snow
in the orient
horses
in an evening off the slopes
the she man
a sudden
drink of the tree
horses that darkened
everything
Keith Higginbotham's publications include Grace Notes (illustrator, with Meg Tuite and David Tomaloff) (Unknown Press), Calibration (Argotist eBooks), Theme From Next Date (Ten Pages Press), Prosaic Suburban Commercial (E∙ratio Editions), and Carrying the Air on a Stick (The Runaway Spoon Press). He lives in South Carolina and posts his (mostly collage) art at keithhigginbotham.tumblr.com.
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Another Forehead
skins whited the skins of
angels relax into a sideways sky
torches done asphalt done
white winds same white
reruns by the tunnel
mountain space time a flying sound
drop can splitting pastiche the
sidewalk reverses the machine explodes
half-cursive caroming through
the metal street boy late for chapel
Oatmeal Shoes
               for J. D. Nelson
earth thru the baby
in the elf chair
the growling charcoal
horse
the silk hammer
eating the page machine
in a marble island
a glass chain
lamp feathers in
the hand and the hole
Flesh Spiral
morning’s ultimate labyrinth
                              winged
                              an emptiness
all the dead nowhere happy
                              went etched
                              in strokes
                              up
                              the asphalt
                              mist
I of the lonely pale
my skin honeyed in black
contradictions of the narrative’s
backup box of plots
                              a month of surfaces
                              bloods the
                              blur
blindsided and maybe the skin’s
                              stretched clock
                              tight cringes
                              askew
The Snows of Kilimanjaro
a plane you made a canvas
outside the barns
of poverty
damn the road ached
kerosene hung in the bush
damned christ drunk in paris
machine-gunning
eye pots
the men wanted
blood
and handcuffs
drinking night down another drink
the barker wife
her love of snow
in the orient
horses
in an evening off the slopes
the she man
a sudden
drink of the tree
horses that darkened
everything
Keith Higginbotham's publications include Grace Notes (illustrator, with Meg Tuite and David Tomaloff) (Unknown Press), Calibration (Argotist eBooks), Theme From Next Date (Ten Pages Press), Prosaic Suburban Commercial (E∙ratio Editions), and Carrying the Air on a Stick (The Runaway Spoon Press). He lives in South Carolina and posts his (mostly collage) art at keithhigginbotham.tumblr.com.