{"id":4924,"date":"2014-08-24T02:59:32","date_gmt":"2014-08-24T02:59:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sporkpress.com\/?p=4924"},"modified":"2014-08-24T02:59:32","modified_gmt":"2014-08-24T02:59:32","slug":"2-poems-chas-hoppe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/2014\/08\/24\/2-poems-chas-hoppe\/","title":{"rendered":"2 Poems || Chas Hoppe"},"content":{"rendered":"

FIVE RESPONSES. UNSORTED.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

You\u2019re asking me to recall lost years. But the memory is an old movie house. I\u2019m the audience. I\u2019m aware of the mechanism. I hear the locomotion of the projector. I see the dust dancing with moths in the beam above my head. I watch the light ebb and swell with the operator\u2019s spent arm on the crank. I see the images jerk, pretending nothing else exists between the frames. But of course that\u2019s not true. You can\u2019t call something an illusion unless you\u2019ve got something to hide.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I get all of that. But I see the train coming right at me. How can I be anything but afraid?<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The newspaper gives hints, but they were too caught up in iconography. You know, all body parts and body counts. Doesn\u2019t make for good reference material. And the archival footage doesn\u2019t help. Like a soundstage, you can\u2019t see it any other way. But later, I bet I\u2019ll catch you craning your neck to try.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m on pills for anxiety right now. You\u2019ll want to know that.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I don\u2019t understand the question. Does the law even apply in a voluntary closed community? Ask the guards how many people still leave. They\u2019ll tell you. They read more magazines than the world can publish.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I\u2019m infinity in the stairwell. And I belong. I do this long enough and I find the library. They don\u2019t expect anyone to bother looking for it. And they\u2019re right. I never am.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The burnt-metal specters of quantum particles linger, as if to say doubt has a place here too. But something doesn\u2019t smell right. They play soft focus tricks with the background and foreground. They say we are sympathetic. They try to impress me with tesseracts and invite me inside. They say I\u2019m too concerned with dimensions.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

They beg explanation.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I get that. No one ever said obscuring the answers was easy.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But there\u2019s something else they\u2019re not telling me. Something about fourth walls and locomotion. Something I left on the cutting room floor.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

____________________<\/p>\n

WEEKDAY<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the basement digging through musty boxes<\/p>\n

you handed me\u00a0Tea for the Tillerman<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Weeks later I heard “Father and Son”<\/p>\n

for the first time, and every time<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

I think I’m missing something somewhere else<\/p>\n

I’m only missing you, the impressions<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

of soundwaves eroding with time<\/p>\n

tree rings in reverse waiting for me<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

to tell you that I’ll listen,<\/p>\n

to tell you that I’m happy.<\/p>\n

__________________
\n<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/embed><\/object>
\n_________________
\nChas Hoppe <\/strong>pays bills as a writer and editor, and pays respect through music and poetry. His recent and forthcoming publications include TAB, Oyez Review, A River & Sound Review, Pismire Poetry, and Columbia Poetry Review. The Diegesis, a collaborative poetry collection with Joshua Young, was released via Gold Wake Press in February, 2013. Follow Chas\u2019s exploits at www.chashoppe.com<\/a>.
\n 
\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

FIVE RESPONSES. UNSORTED.     You\u2019re asking me to recall lost years. But the memory is an old movie house. I\u2019m the audience. I\u2019m aware of the mechanism. I hear the locomotion of the projector. I see the dust dancing with moths in the beam above my head. I watch the light ebb and swell […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-things"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4924\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thisissporkpress.com\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}