s w i f t s  &  s l o w s: a quarterly of crisscrossings

Asleep & restless in the sawdust
C. Mehrl Bennett & John M. Bennett

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Chicken Lunch

The chicken churns over in my
Green-flock skirted oven
Smoking with roasted shirts
Looking tasty in fish-net stockings

Socks burn on the floor
Leaving marks like pen on paper
Slwrll stwant rongdnt clagmor
Ant girl wants slower slide

Off the hive off the wind
On point and on words
In thumb in eye
We hear the bees have been here

Con chiles y sol olvidado
What’s hot is over spread
Chains cold around the head
This could be the end

Questionable Objects

This might offend
Or start with a folded hand
What will the middle finger do?
Will it comb the air?
Will it locate its object?

What itches deep in the eye
Crawls around under our skins
Thickens like wax on our tongues
It is released like graffiti;
Clouds rise above the trees

A piece of shit hangs above the sofa
It sparkles and glimmers in the TV light
Where does kitsch come from?
From the frenchfry under the fridge?
From the fridge door magnets?

Objects of eating shimmer
Soggy bologna & ketchup sandwich
Is a mirror you woke up to
The object slowly evolves into our parents
Asleep & restless in the sawdust

Trees rise above the sofa
Air snakes above the trees
White bread slices fall from the sky
Your hand swims like a bird in the sea
To pull the comb from the toilet

Rituals (Naming the Clouds)

The Sunday morning egg ritual
Foams under the splintery chairs
Hailed by toasted bread slices
Crumbled on the window sill

The cheese & crackers lunch ritual
Concrete olives fill the mouth
A knife marries the cheese board
Bloody wood & hive cancellation

The mailbox checking ritual
Steak in plastic bag
Eye matter inside a window envelope
With hair & glue

The reading of a poem ritual
With hands full of ants
Crawling over our white gloves
Spelling the name of clouds

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C. Mehrl Bennett is an artist living in Columbus OH with poet spouse, John M. Bennett, whom she met via the mailart network. Her media includes junk assemblings, digital art, collage/drawing/painting, poetry, visual poetry, short songs, performance events, mailart (handmade books, artistamp sheets & rubberstamp carving, flux related ephemera, archiving, network activities), video and audio recordings. She is book designer/ associate editor (with JMB) of publishing imprint Luna Bisonte Prods.
lulu.com/lunabisonteprods
cmehrlbennett.wordpress.com/

John M. Bennett has published over 400 books and chapbooks of poetry and other materials. He has published, exhibited and performed his word art worldwide in thousands of publications and venues. He was editor and publisher of LOST AND FOUND TIMES (1975-2005), and is Founding Curator of the Avant Writing Collection at The Ohio State University Libraries. Richard Kostelanetz has called him “the seminal American poet of my generation”. His work, publications, and papers are collected in several major institutions, including Washington University (St. Louis), SUNY Buffalo, The Ohio State University, The Museum of Modern Art, and other major libraries. His PhD (UCLA 1970) is in Latin American Literature. His latest books are Select Poems, Poetry Hotel Press/Luna Bisonte Prods, 2016; The World of Burning, Luna Bisonte Prods, 2017; Poemas visuales, con movimientos con ruidos con combinaciones (with Osvaldo Cibils), Deep White Sound, 2017; Olas Cursis, Luna Bisonte Prods, 2018, Sesos Extremos, Luna Bisonte Prods, 2018; Dropped in the Dark Box, Luna Bisonte Prods, 2019; Leg Mist, Luna Bisonte Prods, 2019; and OJIJETE, Luna Bisonte Prods, 2020. He is co-editor, with Geoffrey D. Smith, of two works by William S. Burroughs: Everything Lost: The Latin American Notebook of William S. Burroughs; and William S. Burroughs’ “The Revised Boy Scout Manual”: An Electronic Revolution; both published by The Ohio State University Press.
John M. Bennett Poetry→