Woodpeckers and TV
we make the forests
but they suck
woodpeckers do not suck
woodpeckers have no forests
there is no TV for woodpeckers
they know the forests suck
the woodpeckers are darling
they do not suck
there is no TV for woodpeckers
we avoid the forests
during firelight
and with little darlings
but they still suck
the woodpeckers do not suck
at least
they do not suck as much
*
What is it?
hare lip
potato head
sleeping dog face
turned round twice
I saw explicit photographs
from the 1890s
echidnas
electrons
ants or
dwarf stars
I walk through the city
on postage stamp legs
the city walks
on its basements
electron
48
seeks electron
interested in
small things
hopes this winter
is the last
sad thing
* * *
Gary Barwin is a writer, composer, multimedia artist, and the author of 18 books of poetry and fiction as well as books for kids. His latest book is the short fiction collection, I, Dr Greenblatt, Orthodontist, 251-1457 (Anvil Press).
Other books include the poetry collection, Moon Baboon Canoe,and the visual poetry collection, The Wild and Unfathomable Always. Sonosyntactics: Selected and New Poetry of Paul Dutton, due later this summer from Laurier University Press, and Yiddish for Pirates, a novel coming out next year from Random House.
He was 2014-2015 Writer-in-Residence at Western University and teaches creative writing at King’s University College. He lives in Hamilton, Ontario and at garybarwin.com and serifofnottingham.blogspot.com. For one long strange summer, he and Kurt Cobain shared a shoe size.