9 Poems by Steven Manuel

photo:  Steven Manuel, a poet from Asheville NC
Steven Manuel:  Born  7 / Jan. ’86, Salisbury, NC; moved
around (textiles textiles — father) same state several
times, now in Asheville—greek & latin, college.
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Your face,
nailed
 
to the page,
brings dreams:
 
 
I wake,
wild,
 
clock shake
sound as eyes
& drive you out--
 
grace-eyed, the eyes
of witch--
to eat
 
nine planets
 
'til the next night,
sleep's stones
 
which give time,
harrow,
 
long missile;
skiff is this
 
that shimmers--
that shakes.
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I'll move up high
pick flowers
& know about mtns., leaves,
the grass that strains
pitiful fingers
to sky
& hollow moon
eat dirt
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early grain
I can hear
the air
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bird sings
in the space of stars
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CLOUD/out of Mahler's SYMPHONY No.2,I: Allegro Maestoso
 
music
box
 
phlox
air
 
gem
sphex
 
fossil
zotheca
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Beauty, hard servant,
they say, I once
popped you open
by a trash can
on sleeping pills.
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Flower Lady
 
A woman working with flowers
I thought she was a flower
working with the stems
clippers hanging off hand
maroon gloves and yellow flowers
She was wearing yellow
She turned out not to be a flower
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SEA,
NOT
LAKE
 
an an-
chor
 
that sings
 
in the water
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rinsed feet
almost shiny
on the bed
 
dampening the covers
in lamp's out night

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