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Nick Sturm

It is about opening up your genius mouth / and decorating what comes out in all / sorts of felt and vapor and astonishment


WHAT A TREMENDOUS TIME WE'RE HAVING!

In many ways I am not a rabbit
or a spool of ribbon and that is important
because it is amazing How wrong
it would be to say I am going skiing
or Do you want to share this cantaloupe
when you mean Let’s do something
incredible
It is not about being specific
It is about opening up your genius mouth
and decorating what comes out in all
sorts of felt and vapor and astonishment
My friends know this and are always unlocking
the garden where I sit in my naked wreckage
I have hidden an amp in the hawthorn
There is a jackhammer in the begonias
You can use it anytime you like

WHAT A TREMENDOUS TIME WE'RE HAVING!

I stand by the armoire and perform experiments
It is technical but not in a very French way
People are always trying to make things
complicated and sometimes that is not so beautiful
like with supercommittees and etiquette I say
fuck it My skin is a delicate golden zoo and
my heart is a ukulele making love to a theremin
It is only beginning to sound right and this is
the purpose of experiments Lay in the grass all day
and it will quietly repair itself in the dark Each blade
industriously licking at next day's dawn
The human part of you will celebrate and that
is what we want To fall asleep in the sun
and wake up with half your body pinned to light


Nick Sturm is the author of the chapbook WHAT A TREMENDOUS TIME WE'RE HAVING! (iO Books, 2012). His poems have appeared or are forthcoming in Aesthetix, Catch Up, Dark Sky, Forklift, Ohio, Ilk, NAP, Red Lightbulbs, Sixth Finch, TYPO, and elsewhere. His reviews and interviews can be found widely in places like Coldfront, HTMLGIANT, and Bookslut. He is associate editor of YesYes Books and curator of THE BIG BIG MESS READING SERIES.