from “elsewhere”
There isn/t a word / / for the ghosts of future bodies in
waiting— / Moths who wait patiently / / in a wilderness / /
called: hinterland / when undiscovered, to consume / /
those strands of the body that die before we do—//We who
talk of shedding skin— / Not of Saint Francis / / in the
sunwarped iridescence of tinted car windows— / Rather
particles of dust / / made of us, / what once was us / /
buoyant in morning light—/A snake/s iris, knifing thru the
slit between motel curtains. / /Infiltrating your dream of
toothless captors / entering the antebellum barn / /
weatherworn/ /from a farmer/s lifespan of North Dakota
winters— /Its pumpkin façade / /immortally creaking/in
the horror of our conjurings.
from “elsewhere”
There are words / / like: viridescent, opalescent— / /
Archaic for the kaleidoscope of tamaracks /permeating our
eyelids / / those mornings / / we find synæsthesia / /
contagious, the sun breaching venetian blinds / screaming
vinyl in reverse. / /Words impossible to pronounce/with a
straight face / / like: evanescent / / for the premonition of
segregated deathbeds / minus the when, where, how. / /
The why / / we dismissed some time ago. / The
remembrance of what lies ahead. / /The déjà vu/ /of what
might/ve been./How one day there will be nothing to show
that we were ever/ /here / /but stardust. /Yet it/s not for
us / / seawaves, rain, shuddering leaves & TV snow / all
sound like applause. / / And without us / / vegetation will
continue to sway— / / Until the sun explodes it/s blinding
aurora— / It/s final performance / / for the amphibious
creatures / who would have descended from us.
Bio: Scott Alexander Jones is the author of a collection of poems: “One Day There Will Be Nothing to Show That We Were Ever Here” (Bedouin Books, 2009). He completed his MFA at The University of Montana and was Writer-in-Residence at The Montana Artists Refuge during October of 2009. He is co-founder of Zero Ducats, a literary journal comprised entirely of stolen materials, and releases music under the moniker Surgery in the Attic. He's about to move to Wellington, New Zealand.