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October 27, 2016 / barton smock

sleep

as proof of shyness. as death

rounded down.

October 27, 2016 / barton smock

{you can be. tired.}

hick
lore
rabbit
hole / poems, barton smock, October 2016

is here:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/barton-smock/hick-lore-rabbit-hole/paperback/product-22914385.html

as always, free hard copy to any person interested in writing a review

free PDF can be requested via contacting bartonsmock@yahoo.com

book preview on site is book entire

**currently, 20% off all print books, there, with coupon code of SAVVYREADER

***if you tell a friend, the friend you tell can be imaginary

~

some poems, from:

[no wolf]

I was a doorstep baby and brother a treehouse.

moon of the injured. moon of the blind.

~

[his impressions of the experiment]

my closest frat brother looks at the toad and says frog motherfucker. tackles me. fact: there is a certain kind of toad that by staying still can kill a drug dog. in this country, a man can sell doves from the back of a white van. a man can run out of doves. my ghost is obsessed with caterpillars. it doesn’t matter what you say. they found that woman.

~

[her impressions of the experiment]

his animals hiccup somewhere within the contagious yawns of god. his tumor is the crow of the ocean. the foot they hope to find me with is not yet purple. I shred a tiny pillow but your baby ain’t blind.

~

[circa (xii)]

the human dream

god’s attempt at a short story

the animal
works

miracles

/ the elephant
in its ruin
takes up
for whale

yeah, it rains here
rains
glue

adult diapers
are fishhook
rare…

/ tell your sister
nothing happened
to mine

~

[circa (xx)]

to the man whose face can do things mine cannot, I give my son.

silence has no creator. pictures

of god
don’t sell.

October 27, 2016 / barton smock

awake

one less person
for god
to watch
write

October 27, 2016 / barton smock

waters

we wrestle sometimes in the junkyard over who gets to guard the lullaby machine. we share an image of our father making a throwing motion while above a necksick dog. of our mother dropkicking a pumpkin to egg on the nothing y’all can come and get. we aren’t close but chew together loudly and lip-synch the hymns we know. spiders forget the sea.

October 26, 2016 / barton smock

manna

from crow
to anthill
lose
the thing
that’s there

telescope, craft your grief

god is what
if all
believe

October 26, 2016 / barton smock

{edits, recent and not so, &}

recent poems:

[rations]

sons
gather facts
for loss
and sons
gather facts
for loss

~

[breather]

infant, the sooner
than expected
search
for god.

I have this baby I’m not afraid to use.

you pretend to shoot
and I’ll pretend
to fall. we’ll make a day

of never talking.

the missing crow of thorns.

~

[swimmer of the blue snow]

a bowl of soup bleeds to death
in the eatery
of my praying
hands

~

[exit wound]

coming up
we are
with names
for time
machines

~

[dream]

I am with my wife and son and we are drinking from the shell of a turtle a soup the locals use to dilute a rain’s grief. I kind of know that something bad is going to happen to both twins. my wife is looking for a wheelchair and then for a place to hide it. my son is saying grace in the only spot he’ll ever be. some of his white pills turn blue as a laugh track denies three times the thunder’s loss.

/ barn etiquette. the rabbit

the volcano’s
dove.

~

[no after]

and what would you have me imagine? a change of tense in a tale of abuse. a baby licking the palm of a doll. a spoon. a robot’s broken arm. a chalk outline of a worm. hunger’s tacklebox. our allergic sister’s suicide note. a calf eating its first canary.

~

[forgets]

the nude’s failure to stay awake in a laundromat. the suicide of the copycat toddler. nine types of catfish. a worm’s tongue. god’s last name. the orphan’s timekiller.

~

older poems:

[possum & moth]

dad is trying to load bullets into a flashlight. his tv show is having trouble sleeping. mom wants us to drink the water while it’s hot. myself I’ve heard horror stories about pissing in the baby pool. I tell my brother having a fever is alot like giving god a blowjob. sister opens the oven for a doll she thought would be taller. we like you but not when you’re lonely.

~

[On my father being gay]

a crow
born inside
a footstep
is passing
for dark

~

[plain sight]

a hearse emerging from the shadow of a school bus

/ a mother
trying
to return
a baptized
mannequin

/ that poorly
lit
bait shop
star

~

newest self-publication:

~hick lore rabbit hole~

~poems, barton smock, 124 pages, 9.00
~October 2016

available here:
http://www.lulu.com/shop/barton-smock/hick-lore-rabbit-hole/paperback/product-22914385.html

/

book preview on site is book entire

free hard copy to those interested in writing a review, make request to bartonsmock@yahoo.com

/

*note: currently, all Lulu print books are 20% off with coupon code of SAVVYREADER

October 26, 2016 / barton smock

gaptooth

the future?

of the world ours is based on

/

my teddy bear
doesn’t
sleep

/

birth
means the baby
on your back
can swim

October 25, 2016 / barton smock

[hick lore rabbit hole] *poems, barton smock, 124 pages, Oct 2016

~hick lore rabbit hole~

~poems, barton smock, 124 pages, 9.00

~October 2016

available here:

http://www.lulu.com/shop/barton-smock/hick-lore-rabbit-hole/paperback/product-22914385.html

/

book preview on site is book entire

free hard copy to those interested in writing a review, make request to bartonsmock@yahoo.com

/

note: currently, all Lulu print books are 20% off with coupon code of SAVVYREADER

October 25, 2016 / barton smock

untitled

pregnancy
while on
the list
wasn’t
his first
choice

but memory
ain’t
human

October 25, 2016 / barton smock

portrayals

it is not so exact
this language

both parents thought to report the child missing

god is weak
but can address
the outdated
animals
of
your poems

without me
stones
meet