Benjamin Henry

disbelief/submersion

(example)

Water courses over my face,

I see through each droplet ...

Open your fist, accept these weeds,

fan away dust settling in unmemorable,

brownish-grey layers in unused hallways,

basements, government buildings

crumbling in the shadows of concrete

monoliths, point toward the sky, toward

what may be the center of the galaxy.

(introduction)

Snow is falling on the ground and melts

the black pavement road, hot and sticky

with fresh-painted lines, white on the

edges, yellow-dotted down the center:

coded for traffic control ...

(story)

the left of three elevators took me slowly

to the eighteenth floor of the concrete tower

spiral, winding slug froths a tongue grin,

eyes, bloodshot from whiskey darken

with clouds descending a sunburnt horizon.

(caller)

He stands and talks, bubbles form

in the puddle at his feet - an umbrella

sits ready on a wooden rocker to his right

(recapitulation)

water droplet... weeds crumbling the sky

falling on lines coded for eighteenth

spiral whiskey, bubbles puddle at right.

(continuation)

Garbage, garbage, screech, rev

mumbling. swish, away, again;

the common state of all humanity =

I wait as my headache grows.

(the calling)

To the fire! I smell smoke, burning,

candle wax on the edge of a drip.

(answering)

awareness grappled; a tight-knit hold

on open visions: looking at a video

monitor, tower bells ring or a wire pole sends signals

to an electromagnetic switch. So I am attracted.

So becomes:

the prism spreads a mirror reflection

through miles of fiber optic lines,

Light shines on an audial awareness

behind the window of my eyes.

I half enter this new doorway;

a hand grabs me from the left,

but my right leg is firmly planted on this side.

Usual senses almost halved, but with time:

every note and pitch of information builds

on a growing heap of familiar recognition.

Both feet planted opposite and steady,

the data structure graphed, comprehended;

coordinated signals fix and lock normality.

(conversation)

Hands form, and a face, and hair;

colors of the eyes, and again the hair --

tone, grammar, vocabulary adjusted,

prior to speech the voice assumes

an appearance, contextualized chronologically,

bearing power and tools of manipulation --

alive three hundred physical miles

from the respirating source but fueled

and conducted by colliding electrons.

(return)

Pulled out by the now-outside interruption of hunger,

the connection closes, vanishes

to a shiny black speck, lingering invisible.

AM

--

PM

The tube flashes back to attention;

an area in-between overfamiliar and ignored:

the normality of physical, palpable objects

can often bore the mind -- a consciousness

ever seeking a clearer explanation

of self-existence -- flickering blue

and shadowed furniture looks almost surreal;

the angle is steep and sloped downward,

high above a man's head (we admonish him),

hair on top is slightly balding: brief

pan and subtleties of lighting convey

motive with motion and color; the man walks

away from a view of polished black shoes.

Fzzz.

At thumb-tip he finds control;

his visions change and flash by --

glimpses into moments of recorded thoughts --

action satisfies his mood:

hooves on brown legs spring forth

from dust, wide, stretching plains and a cowboy hat,

familiarity encompasses Freudian personalities

like the grip of his fingers on the rocker arm.

light from the kitchen forms a 19" square

at a far end of the living room --

commercials release the attention span

and delve into a pre-supposed sub-consciousness.

the body wins this time with hunger;

refrigerator light plainly illuminates

the furniture night after night

in a seven day cycle.