Author: © Tom Hibbard
Type: Poetry – excerpt
Author Links: Big Bridge, Moon Willow Press, Jacket Magazine

//
    (manifesto)

only because the promotion of privilege
uncovers mournful worlds, confusing the light—
the gazelles of clean water issue no threat
weighing pros and cons, unseen, paradoxical
looked upon categorically as upon a corpse
compliant facts pumped from fixations
believing in the night and all its good deeds
unusual people open their hearts
as scientists claim knowledge is only a miracle…
the sanitized tides of corporate gurus
lying in wait to betray the storm:
one sunny beer-soaked summer day in early july
I took an immense red-white-and–blue shit
in a field of bottlegrass, only to regret
the palpability of disaster as compassion once again
undeterred thorn, wild child of the universe
hobo of jouissance, eternal matador

//

stone on stone, rock on rock,
the native is the stranger
in the last days of thought
thousands gathering for the feast of the bells
in a distant foreign land of insignificance…
where am I going in this lonely room
back home to the trees and hills and river
only a few people on the sidewalk
trying to control the uncontrollable
trying to fathom the ineffable
beginning at the beginning where everything ends
I’ve been there before, the small town parks
the “red sky at night” straight ahead
I can’t see it, but I know it’s there
the benches of space, the bridges of hope
the voyage impossible does not form immediately
young, old, sick but far away from dead

The featured image is credited to Big Bridge, where Tom’s piece on surrealism was published.