SPRAWL Poem by Ishion Hutchinson

Amid ice and granite
sea hush and crash
and the profit and the loss

the prophet xeroxed
in his tamarind shade
and wasp buzz and saw

in the hills crashed leaves
and virgins' suicides
right after the election

and November's Janus
and Pontius Pilate's
maggot snipers' amen

and fortunately I forgot
to be afraid and kept
my fear in the salt

chiseling my face
when I read Keats
and loved the ash

and put two coins
in my right palm
amid the crashed crop

century of wheat
drought rosary terra
cotta Kali reconnaissance

renaissanced my nipples
torpedoed and rocked
the strobe-lit stageshow

the Gorgon's scintillated
romance foiled the constable's
peace and Herodotus

slept as the prophet rose
to his chalice and put
on his mongrel pelt

and it rained softly
and blessed nothing
scarce of breath

and grated nutmeg
and the tyranny of sugar
and pure cream soda

enclosed in cinders
shook burst fizzed
and I found my shape

shifted ciphered raw

my total reversal
my total reversal
my total reversal