JON WOODWARD

SUNSET
WITH A CROWN OF SHARK’S EYES

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

SUNSET

 

Photogenic irrespective
of appearance

Expansive subset of
absorption

Stubborn

Never-ending
focal plane

Ad hoc anesthetic

The trailing edge of everything
looks pink

The time left is
unlimited

Supreme Court nominee on TV:
“quaaa[aaaaa[aaaaa]aaaaa]aalms”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

WITH A CROWN OF SHARK’S EYES

 

A shipwreck!

In conclusion,
slime, smile, time spike, soapy
lens cleaner, cough remedy, chandelier,
post office, Grand Canyon,
Transversal, simulatron [sic], prisoner ship,

overhead projectors, slide projectors,
news reports, TV sets, pop-up windows,
strips of film, Polaroids, dead
bleeding blood chemicals,
lightbulb-lit square images tumbling
down into the blue, swords
of light falling down through innocent
ocean, spraying gore and guilt
down and all around through
ocean, down below me into
the dark & black, devoured by
my ocean “mine”

The trenches are in most of the right places, although they’ve forgotten or missed a few. The peaks and flats are okay, edges of the continental shelves not sharp-looking enough, reef information is decades behind (ie too optimistic). Taken all together, C minus. I myself am

One false bullet after another
slides down the gun-barrel of my immortality

A machine gun, it was called.
One day after another brings no advancement of age.
And yet I am the oldest creature that I know of.

The striking realism of a finely executed and well maintained trophy mount makes it a genuine work of art

The trenches are in most of the right places, although they’ve forgotten a few. The peaks and flats are okay, edges of the continental shelves
                                        on grasses
by beach or on twigs by
by beach, by groves of trees

or groves of reeds at water’s edge
or in ripples at water’s edge, or
or clusters of kelp clogging the vision

A shipwreck!
A shipment of metal toothpicks spills
slows falls slowly down down
A blanket of rust
settles over the electric mind

bringing to a halt
the local economy (calcium uptake/micropredation/
“stunning imagery”)

I was starring in a musical
The camera was looking down from the surface
I was in the center of the shot (looking up)
(“Did you get that? Were you rolling?”)
Arrayed around me, the plenitude of ocean creatures
In concentric, counter-rotating circles
(seahorses, then starfish, then jellyfish,

coral fans blowing in the breeze
couple after couple of ugly fish
fake mermaids on billboards,

half-unzipped ship’s wake far above slow unzip merrily

merrily merrily

Can you get here?
In how fast, five minutes?

In how fast?
The camera was looking down from the surface

♪♫ The slightest, breeze, topples, you over
♫♪ A Joshua, tree, or a three-leaf, clover
♪♫ You were boat, were bronze, were spear, were sun
♫♪ Exit wound, through the teeth, & your reason’s, undone

♪♫ So lie, on down, in the water, with me
♫♪ Weighted, with commotion, you sink, in the sea
♪♫ In a circle, of dugongs, with a crown, of sharks’ eyes
♫♪ Nothing, preventing you, (successive, tries