Abandoned Premises, by Joy Lahey

 

5.5x8.5 inches, saddlestitched, 24 pages

 

a small number of print copies still available, email for info

 

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from Abandoned Premises

 

 

Summer


Words— I often imagine this— are little houses,
each with its cellar and garret.

Gaston Bachelard
The Poetics of Space

 

Right

 

There were some moments
Some taken in
By infinite simplicity
The smells associated with childhood
And the endless July rain
They could understand lives
So different from their own
But once infection occurs, little
      can be done

In the end it was all real
Or a token display
      in the same category
Creole tomatoes growing from buckets
Further the point
Small flowers drop to the patio tiles
It is not enough to say
A position results from relationship

The gesture requires an audience
“Why’s that?” she said unsurprised
Three-quarters of the population
      are in misery alphabetically
It’s a different style of tennis
      without bleachers and the bouncing ball
A net intimates design
Coral honeysuckle plays a part—
And darting birds—
There are no mistakes
No need
to watch for change
Flight patterns and vegetation rituals
cover everything
As far as that goes
If not the matter itself
The void appeared indestructible

 

 

 

White Soil

 

Lying back on a pile of leaves
She reached up with one leg
And pointed her toes to
A passing cloud
Pantomime or ballet was her first
Choice of means, an apogee
Of movement spurred by
Her own response and
Especially wholesome abandon
To the task of politics

At the same time a detailed execution
“Wading through Whitecaps” made
Her reputation more than any other
Example that might be cited

A magnificent climb nicknamed
“Insipidity” by her detractors caromed
Off the heights of late afternoon

Loss of appetite was mild
As if from a bad oyster
There were Greek ice
Cream sticks and chocolate paper
But a rising wind
Was tearing into an ascent
Of white hydrangeas
She tripped up the second time
Groped
“So what was the plan?”
Touched down early evening
City in flames

Our first task is to give you
A more respectable provenance:
“No life but this one
and no loyalty
but emotional truth”
It would have been enough

 

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