.jpg)
A Duplex Only Turns 45 Twice
The era was not convinced that I could read
When I signed a check “Jakub Sheph” on Monday
And a contract “Jehcup Cheffe” on Tuesday. Us
Artists get ahead by knowing what to change
And how. In exchange for more austerity,
I chose this psychosis. You grow to love
A tool the more you use it. With growing things
Familiarity’s effect is different.
Hence, they’re not tools. The father of diseases
Was the scapegoat for my natural teenaged angst.
No cap! Teste testy me. Against rage,
A fire burns politely. Each separate
Karate agreement I signed with a match
Convinced the era that I could not read.
##
A Duplex Only Turns 48 Twice
He lived a hundred years and never ate
The prices paupers pay for acres, nor did
He the pressures papers put on races.
He’d email the BBC from his “teepee
2.0” and put “Love” after “bcc:”;
The kindest kind of rude. An obstinate
Buttinsky, but no obstructionist, each day’s
Dynamism turns every avenue paved
With hope into a macadam of diamonds.
Men are born popular and love robs you blind;
The spoliated evil underdog’s
Lawyer says, “Groups must decide: distinction or
Extinction?” To reach for lower layers,
He lived a hundred years and never ate.
##
The Seagull’s 409th Seguidilla
Between the politician
And sincerity,
The poet stands, a grown-ass
Breath. For adyta,
His eskrima sticks
Talk. He tells reckless freckles
That eczema sucks.
##
The Seagull’s 101st Seguidilla
With friendship gules, what sieges
Seagulls do! So false
It’s true, what rattles the bones
Of chaos enthralls.
A late adopter
Of dissembling, now that cloud’s
A helicopter.
##
Death Song 7: Beneath a Thixotropic Sky
“The air was more than ever like a blue forest, with the moon releasing soft currents of yellow.”
- Saul Bellow, Henderson the Rain King
I map the hollow bones of Hell
And bid the time of day farewell.
Farewell to cranreuchs, morning’s smell!
Farewell to meekness overpriced!
A motivated moat could swell
The Nile,
But that would get it sliced and diced.
Make pruinose all Sainte-Chapelle,
My belle
Will scream that I’m the anti-Christ.
Like aspens sharing roots, they yell;
My enemies. They serve a bowl
Of thunder’s thumbs to all who crawl
Before them when their days are lysed.
I map the hollow bones of Hell
And bid the time of day farewell.
Farewell to cranreuchs, morning’s smell!
Farewell to meekness overpriced!
“Where cheekbones age like checkbooks, sell
Your soul”
No flower-bringing song advised.
O Death, you lack the seguidill-
A’s skill!
My blue guitar’s a catalyst!
The seagull’s seguidilla kills
My heart. To cast another spell,
The ocean takes your form so well,
Paleozoic poltergeist.
I map the hollow bones of Hell
And bid the time of day farewell.
Farewell to cranreuchs, morning’s smell!
Farewell to meekness overpriced!
With copypasta’s crocodile,
You rule
The sky, that watermelon sliced
And dripping light. The commonweal’s
White hill
Has gold-implanted eyelids closed
At last. The craziest bells peal.
It doesn’t faze the shopper’s zeal
Or fortune’s prosecutor; he’ll
Be shopping till the truth is iced.
I map the hollow bones of Hell
And bid the time of day farewell.
Farewell to cranreuchs, morning’s smell!
Farewell to meekness overpriced!
Bio: Jake Sheff is a paediatrician and US Air Force veteran. He's published a full-length collection of formal poetry A Kiss to Betray the Universe (White Violet Press), along with two chapbooks 'Looting Versailles' (Alabaster Leaves Publishing) and 'The Rites of Tires' (SurVision).
