[Realpoetik] JAMES COOK

[RealPoetik Magazine]

*From *When Dylan Went Electric


At times the camera seemed to be revealing
its own inner workings as subject & object.

An argument with memory.

Pan slowly over rainy street.

Dark salt waves pulse.

The news man’s plastic face suddenly grown so sad & strange.

The world outside was subject to constant paralysis – curtains were
invented.

The radio turned in on itself

(see camera above)

& beauty refused abstraction,
squandering all its silly money at the pawnshop,
reveling in the flickered light.

Never before had we been able to say what we were doing as we were doing
it.

We told all our friends & then they told us what they were doing.

Often we were standing in lines.

This is how I remember the 21st century.

Listen: some kid’s drawing of an exploding flower.

The poem you wrote once about her eyelashes.

How you looked forward to coffee.

All the things that had nothing to do with disaster.
The town with its one water tower.
The cancelled sky.



*James Cook*'s poems have appeared in various print and online
publications, including *The Cortland Review*, *BlazeVOX, Lake
Affect*,*Scissors and Spackle
*, and *Colbalt Review*. His first full-length collection, *Moments at
Point Light*, is in manuscript. He is currently at work on a book-length
poem titled *The Croatoan Songbook*. He lives in upstate NY.

-- 
RealPoetik
www.realpoetik.org
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.scn.org/pipermail/realpoetik/attachments/20130128/84e9663a/attachment.html>