VIA NEGATIVA
by Jake Byrne
Leaf matter passing into dust lil caterpillar mange-holes
Mon cheri berry. Aprikorn
I could hear a clarion in matter
My mind sought to convince me I could steel
Myself for what I knew would come
And selfishly I gripped the horny dark energy
That would be better distributed to others.
And how to lay the blow
Upon the page. I cannot explain to you
How I came to be here. All I know
Is that I am here, that my words had worth
Beyond the dollar value they could fetch.
But why write this poem, in this mode,
In this cheap, unadorned way. Not something whittled
Out of a hunk of oak, cheaply-molded plastic
It wasn’t forever, just one breath, the next
New vestigial organs specialize from doubled-marrow
News: Modified blood vessel accessory spouting cortisol
Catecholamines Hard core of terror
Growing up out 12th vertebrae Watch
This horn sprout through my forehead
I can fire it at enemies, real or perceived
Faster than bullet. The stupidity of fuck
And it’s god I’m wanting to cast me down
And fill me up but when lacking substituting him.
And him or he where is his energy
And will, redirected thru the column of my spine
God’s fist up my ass like a puppet
Could I ask you to define “puppet” before we
Proceed with the deposition please. I don’t recall
Inside me his desire hardens, calcifies,
Becomes a stone for me to pass. And it all was
The kidney stones, but more of No. 21 The World
Shifting column of solitaire card animations
Archetypes, historiologies and runes. Heart murmuration
Of starlings. Propriety, decorum, tradition, lore
Message boards, forums, whatever you birth
And the world gets its little poisons in your tissues
Slow-release capsules of history, honour and traditions
Our unknowable fates born as we are reluctant
And willful submissives to agents of history
Infinitely rearranging the cards we hold in hand, preparing to
Draw the next from deck. Even the worst cards
Had their uses. Three fingers curled up underneath
My aching prostate gland, where soul was kept, how wet flesh was
Weighed with blood of thousands dead or injured
You are weighed by the invisible ballast
Of your history. But each morning’s purges
Give each of us a chance to begin anew. What was
The market value of your fairy-tale weddings to the sclerotic status quo?
Nacreous liquids on goosepimpled flesh
Happy childhood memories stripped of all valence
Positive charm etc. January is a month
For prick’d ivy. How to own my inheritances
Not merely possess them Possession was three fifths
Of spirit’s law—Grand Guignol marionette
The idea of telos—Oceanic tears
This purple prose—Like a cock too long
Gorged with blood by metal ring—burned out chassis stop
With the lists of nouns. Fucking STOP it or I’ll
Break up with you. Why does it feel like
I am to carry this burden of I alone?
By disclosing all to you I double down
Bet all or nothing on this egoic vision
That my soul was to travel through purgatory realms alone
But this was a branch of psychology named attachment
Unrelated to the Buddhist concept of the same name. Skingrafting
Building a brain one kilobyte at a time
Horny fury lonely furry coup de gras
Et cri de coeur. I’m crying out to be saved
Then fucked and in that order. My disorders
Eugenics all the way down. When the seraphim
Makes itself known to you, be not afraid. Impossible
I fear for lack of money, penury prestige and acclaim
Pleasure entire diseased glass menagerie of earthly
And otherwise delights
The kingdom and the interregnum
Holiest days appropriated for secular purposes
The cohesive work of art is never whole
But is erect in its convictions
How do I tell you that under all this matter
Stirs a soul?
Watchmaker god, prime mover
Ratio’d real bad on Twitter
Crop duster Bunker buster
Northrop Grumman Britten-Norman
Day + Zimmerman Defense Combined Systems Inc.
Solomon defense
Of arms and men and god and arms
Around me and god inside me and men
Always unattainable Fundamentally unknowable
Custom coffin manufacturing the size depth and width
And breadth of a lifespan and accumulated self
Mythology and an average number of respirations
In and out. Life and death Innocence Experience
Expansion and contraction. Comprehension and abstraction
Raytheon and Lockheed Martin Merger Acquisition
Resource and Extraction. Dominion Domination
And Submission Arpeggio And Pas-de-deux
But these are just words
By whose Grace I take you into me and keep
You at words’ length concurrently
Intimacy The real thing When the map is the territory
Then my faggot heart shall be known and destroyed by thee—
ABOUT THE CREATOR
Jake Byrne is a poet, copywriter, and editor. He is a white settler living in Tkarón:to, on lands governed by the Dish With One Spoon Covenant. His poetry has been published in various American and Canadian journals. His first two full-length books of poetry are forthcoming in 2023 with Wolsak and Wynn Press and 2024 with Brick Books. Find his work and working rates at www.jakebyrnewrit.es. Photo by Jessica Laforet. @jakebyrnewrites on Twitter.