Brandon Shimoda
4 poems
**
North America
Woah, the devil in the brains
birch and flame
through pearly ooze
.........................................from afar
there is a house among the trees
where a person
....................once standing inside the door
has left, or she, the shadow
climbing red the walls
back into the trees, split open
was making ourselves warm
**
the Alps 1981
Madame’s house
within us kept
my sister weeps beside the lake
She whites
so I in love with white
and when she suffers outside
while I am sick......she blacks
so I in love with black
needles in
my cracking hive
backside wan, and overripe
**
from Glacier Village
IV
in the imperative, the sentiment: I miss everyone
already......I miss
everybody dissolving in the guild
spring witch
hazel bending north and south
a rank yet rousing cadaver
floating past
VI
the knight appears
...................in the bully crook......Waves a red hand
...................in an earthy gown
A bead of sweat on the edge of his lip
...................anointing the choir......disorderly pews
**
Suddenly walking under this canopy of pines
...............—Sally Keith
tender voice on my neck
killers exist. Chest
to chest. Butter
blood flower taller
than you will fall and crush you
with reward. The neighbors drag
to your garden a sudden draft of darkness gloating
**
return to sawbuck 1.4
**
Brandon Shimoda's poems and critical writings have appeared or will appear soon in MiPOesias, PRACTICE, Verse, Aufgabe, the tiny, TYPO, and elsewhere, as well as in LAKE M, ONE (Corollary Press, forthcoming 2007). He curates the New Lakes reading series (in Missoula, Montana), and is on the editorial boards of CutBank and Octopus Books & Magazine. Born in California, and raised in multiple states and landscapes, he currently live in Montana.
**
North America
Woah, the devil in the brains
birch and flame
through pearly ooze
.........................................from afar
there is a house among the trees
where a person
....................once standing inside the door
has left, or she, the shadow
climbing red the walls
back into the trees, split open
was making ourselves warm
**
the Alps 1981
Madame’s house
within us kept
my sister weeps beside the lake
She whites
so I in love with white
and when she suffers outside
while I am sick......she blacks
so I in love with black
needles in
my cracking hive
backside wan, and overripe
**
from Glacier Village
IV
in the imperative, the sentiment: I miss everyone
already......I miss
everybody dissolving in the guild
spring witch
hazel bending north and south
a rank yet rousing cadaver
floating past
VI
the knight appears
...................in the bully crook......Waves a red hand
...................in an earthy gown
A bead of sweat on the edge of his lip
...................anointing the choir......disorderly pews
**
Suddenly walking under this canopy of pines
...............—Sally Keith
tender voice on my neck
killers exist. Chest
to chest. Butter
blood flower taller
than you will fall and crush you
with reward. The neighbors drag
to your garden a sudden draft of darkness gloating
**
return to sawbuck 1.4
**
Brandon Shimoda's poems and critical writings have appeared or will appear soon in MiPOesias, PRACTICE, Verse, Aufgabe, the tiny, TYPO, and elsewhere, as well as in LAKE M, ONE (Corollary Press, forthcoming 2007). He curates the New Lakes reading series (in Missoula, Montana), and is on the editorial boards of CutBank and Octopus Books & Magazine. Born in California, and raised in multiple states and landscapes, he currently live in Montana.
