Ann Cotten Poems

Hit Title Date Added
1.
Metonymy, us

I'll speak for you, so hush.
Shut up, I say. Come now,
come on, be calm, I say, I'll do the words
and when I'm done we can climb in together.
...

2.
Extension, possession

Your name is far and wide, and yet it was sometime,
I mean, not long ago you were a new lesion.
And now I hardly see a word before seeing
you in the place of everything I miss. Laughter
...

3.
lets see if we can get clear about the swans

All swans are called Reinhard. Not really, I know
they just look like it. Like a certain look. And so
- - - - - - beep - - - crumbs and they are merely
what they might think (no no no). They wear glasses
...

4.
The most curious of animals

They are not there for anyone to live on
and really, they can only do things wrong.
They swallow hooks with little pain
but monofilaments get them first.
...

Trade will always be the same, but you can always leave.
Hercules & Atlas

Bleed the Lily gently, palpitate the Thorny Rose,
The Tulip dreams, the sturdy one, upon her sweetened rows.
...

6.
De atra bile

A terrible claw has hit me
it lives in the picture carpet
don't ask me I don't know
what it is but it is
...

7.
The shape of the eye and the cowardice

Leap through the Styx, a quicksilver
curtain, an advance, a breakfast.
You close your eyes and pierce the surface of the water.
Now you are in another world. Like words,
...

8.
Hits, grabs, takes my breath away

Late clamours in and we spit on the fence, where
Mister Leach is banging Cary Grant, bunching their evening dresses
and a bird keeps saying 'Hobts ka Wohnung?'
...

9.
Address to the beds

Beds, lend me your ears! I did consider writing this in verse. For a while it seeded a good idea to me. Which disintegrated, of course (my opinion).
...

10.
Defensive talk

They're sputtering like motors with no clue,
the oil wants to get out and spits
words only to lose them
like dead good mousers.
...

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