Cause & Defect

Stan Rogal

why does that strange sea make no sound? : when does the acorn grok it will never be a tree? : what are you doing in this city where you’re lost, poor & unknown? : does black coffee make one drunk, do you think? : honestly, I asked the waiter for soup & was brought soap : in the bathroom someone left their face in the mirror (again) : how does the demonic show itself? : look it up, check, verify : (our linguist says their meaning is a prayer for death) : in that other place (grown monstrous) where speech is a mouth speaking : listen! a voice on the line over it…over the, uh, what?...wires…it…sez : (you catch a few words that might be important) : “you catch a few words that might be important” : the assault continues, “an atomization of somber emotions” : really, they bleed an old dog dry : pretty paintings poorly framed & hung just to fill the space : (as an aside: the little hunchback hasn’t left his tent today, while in other news: a poet, a lesbian and a Jew walk into a bar…it’s not funny…((who would have known they’d be the same person, anyway?)) : picked up on suspicion of being suspicious : straight-jacket us quick into stinking shorts, dead shoes & sweaty socks : understand, we can’t (we shouldn’t) depend on the old images no more : turn on a light, fer chrissakes : learn to love the rack & screw : I refuse to read the poets who keep their dogs in line, woof woof : those who want to make trinkets out of my bones : whose mouths taste of toothpaste & weather forecasts : every word sounds an explanation ¾ wait! ¾ is that not also an explanation? : (“get me out of this text it’s embarrassing”) : be a good soldier, gut it out : bent over the bent nails, by jeezus, it is obvious I am no carpenter : my nerves are shot tonight : high time to embrace the art of clutter : “your forgiveness is like a new egg to me” : swell : & the afternoon, the evening sleeps so gracefully : trees comfort the wind in a leafy fold of branches : causation is sequence & everything is one thing after another ¾ (this is, after all, yours truly, presented flat, on a sheet of blood) ¾ the rest packaged, stamped, & mailed elsewhere in parts : fine, I kill time, yes, (I fucking murder it) 

Stan Rogal: I live, write and walk my pet Jackabee in Toronto. Work has appeared in numerous magazines and anthologies in Canada, the US and Europe, including: filling station, Rampike, NoD, Exquisite Corpse... The author of 25 books: 6 novels, 7 story, 12 poetry plus several chapbooks. An MA English from York U. Former Master Bowler and Royal Canadian Legion Dart Champion in a previous life.