CHARLES BERNSTEIN'S most recent publications are Republics of Reality (Sun & Moon) and My Way: Speeches and Poems (University of Chicago Press). He teaches at SUNY-Buffalo.




AMERICAN BOY WITH BAT

the surface
          in the
    dalliance of
            flimflam

Your thud
      a shadow
                a
clump
  fawning     faces

(s)lit







INTURPITUDE

Complacent rumors’
Molded deceit
Jaw of fungibility in
Nascent confidence
Regime paradoxically scrambled
Physically decomposed surging
Contrasts fauve hiatus
A key dismal Buddhist
Or tourist harmony
Of Transitory pulling strings
Sprained cart is fragility
Prolonged order over
White fill a sequence of mulch
Incognito, shattered, lent
For example, big cheetah
Combs shifting font
occipital, operative, dunk





JACK ROBINSON

dubious
mild
tornado
dovecoats
imperious
redemption
russle
myopic
malleable
torso
gizmo
ember
unearthly
truant





EMPTY BISCUITS

Ceylon's ox slaked Mary's goard
Cycloned to flagrant dawn, sat
Jimmy's plight on gravy sprain as
Gibes in fairies lorn. Shed
Bright blood then, doled dizzy
Frappes along the gogos gay, jug
Silo pain, good Jimmy's caulk,
Ensued irradiant flame. Say
Hooray bloat, say irksome slit, as
Nestling slights no gasp. Rail
At sum, imbue outset, burnt
Thronement merely pines. Then
Aeons swish in Eden's sway
Slops hulls in duster's flow
Airs numbed till gab, obeyers
Chewed, blur the blur ingests.


This is a translation of "Johnny Cake Hollow," which can be found at
Tinfish #2.