Dominoes

Steve Dalachinsky
October 2016

segment from Dominoes, 1960, image courtesy of Arteidolia
(Danny Lyons: Message to the Future, Whitney Museum, 2016)

 dominoes
Valentine’s Day Watch (the photos of Danny Lyon)

 

we play
just like  dominoes
lay
just like dominoes
matched looking very much the part
try to prove our innocence
display   just like dominoes

a sense of crooked continuity
reaching some effect upon the flattened borders of conversation
heroes
prisoners
god’s love tatooed on our back
love for  MOTHER  on the fore arm
dominoes
in the shower to wash away our crimes
this body of You like dominoes
collapsing
thru the body of You   electricity
like dominoes
we     shout    beg whisper    plead

–    you’ve shot me enough times already
please stop     shooting   –

wavy haired dominoes   in black leather  jackets
witnesses    washing our eyes clean
slain    researched    heaved up             just like dominoes

short order cooks serving a long term sentence

dominoes on grappling hooks
hanging like loaded pistols    open mouthed circles drawn  on flat dry walls

dominoes   merchants commissioned  to document rooftops no longer there
pits & castles        chambers  of horror  & joy

to give the ok  just like dominoes play just like dominoes  we lay just like dominoes pray
just like dominoes    say just like dominoes   stay   just like dominoes……………