by Jake Berry

The torches of heaven
outwit the rage of humans

They gather without effort
in the deep strata
(where the Old Ones are buried) —
Their cabals mean nothing
but conquer everything

Sleep.
arrange the fossils and sediment
Listen to the mineral voices rising
Copulations in their central ores
will wake us in a cold sweat
from the Unknown revolving

Whose Being
is all process and rebellion ?
Remember the kisses in high Edin *
where rivers are born
and the hankering elements
where Imagination ripens

* Edin is a Sumerian word for steppe.

by Jake Berry

Spokes of the sun
strike the sky
deep blue — painful

An agitation
through pipe smoke
scattering
the nocturnal eye

Fragments of joy
and constructs of aspiration
condense across the windshield
wet
and evaporating

Synapses and stars
blink for a second
and flame out
to see
birds descend
and strike the dry ground
for seed

could be the faith of an ape
outliving its corpse

by Jake Berry

A fist around the edges —
slurry
at the heart

Tanks
Absalom
The garter worn twisted

Thieves torn
from their barracks
and scattered

Names are traded
at the temple gate

Carcass swells
in splendid arrangement

Slowly the loom
breaks
stolen to rust,
the prime generator

Who are these liars
that captivate the populace ?
Is the body of fear
a new and reeking
God ?

Leave them lie
and they will rise
into an impotent cloud
and piss
the backward flood

Take to the closet
and cry out

The rain lilies
don’t give a damn
They know the lawn mowers
are coming

by Norbert Hirschhorn

They stand on concrete pylons,
pinions of steel, imagining landmarks
they can no longer see: acacias,
date palms, orange groves, millet rows,
wattled homes painted with stories of Haj,
(Haram al – Sharif, the black Kaaba).
And the graves — sancta sanctora —
of parents, saints, children lost early.  Only

the water, the unruffled water, spreads
forever, drowning out laughter beneath
the growl of turbines where
salvos of power turn air into ozone.  From

the hills, from the sands, small
eddies billow: land, oh land.