The Poetry Project

this is my cousin and the calculated lifetime of a potato

Eric Ellingsen

this is are two

did you meet my cousin at the gas station? There are only three people in this town

we call thunder bird. This means you

see a farm from the moon. Home is said in a way that says you are

there someone’s got two of something

this is the man’s aroma going out of the house too

know how to read out of the house

know how tiptoeing into the vortex is hairy

know how if you cut out this part this is a married couple that lives

on a farm called Help Victory. Help Victory has a daughter and this is more

complicated than this: a girl is not a promise

to be engaged but can be a chair, and then there is this man aroma walking

out of the house. This is the all-tongue greeting. The hours help has waited for this

are two says one secret knowledge

these are the all words I don’t know

how to say they are two. This is the kind of waiting that is waiting for something to happen. It is not

like the waiting waiting for something not to happen feels like. It is not the waiting waiting

for nothing feels like which feels like flora. This kind of waiting are two

this is not a boring but full, a digging which puts in, an in-verse shovel, full

of expectation and pika. We’ll get to the meaning of this later. Now is the wrong sentence.

Only once it’s two

this is a bottle or bottom or button. This fall out or fell out or falls out or felt

of the top hole this is the second off the second

hand in the arm watch. The second hand says two. The second always says two says new day. This is

the sparkling light package. The package means nothing; sparkling means nothing, light might be

going to no one and has nothing inside but more package. This links

like the thing the beloved always likes to link I think light

now linking bits of light

now the ceremonial pea speech is given summer linen and bees

now B

now the rutabaga curl; who can roll the rutabaga the farthest

now the butcher tries to make ends meet

now here anything said twice returns ritual even l even two even twice

now haven’t we already alted? Know we already alt or art thou, now Avant

know the last time I threw thrownness your way I hit someone I missed

now I miss the Library of Water

now I mist

now this image is lost

this is the friend of the girl that is not a promise, waiting at home, not arriving twice

it is hard to keep not arriving twice, this is

the mountain and this is the tower and I don’t know the middle thing and they are two

this growing wind when in window winds across the lake going to two lands at once

here are two planted potatoes: potato potato

here is an old man with no teeth waving his history stick at me

this is the man who loves to stay in the living room singing his history sticks

are two

this the word he loves to sing

are two

see are two is said thirty-one times here see: are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two are two

are now there are two national anthems one leader leads them both but they are not the same

this is the male sheep that makes the sound a male sheep makes

bleat in the I think stable

the place you keep the braining thing up glowing songs growing mist

are two, I’m not really just trying to think of something

and two

this is the virgin’s blue eyes

hope is pulled love

every word your true name

and two

do you see the hope in her eyes, mist, sparking, the woman who has to wear forever

left home for this hope to wear and here is one bread: bread, and here is one mist

and two

this word is the stone she rolls with the tip of the word boot

this is the shortest version of this

and two

know how this is the slip in a mud wet road that is not icy;

this road reads into the meaning of the red path defines one course and alternates whales

and the time till he arrives are two

it has now been confirmed that the population of the small farm hill town

is two countries and the feet here

are two

the feet come dressed up as the boyfriend surprised

the look in the face of the girl’s mother are two

two sisters live in the old swimming pool. The bedroom was a bathroom in 1946. The kitchen was the women changed and, where they change now. I don’t even know what it’s like except there it is, still, a window sill that slides open between what was the kitchen and whatever your bedroom is today. Of the bedroom there are two

he says. Everything that is are two. You just have to see the small

farm hill up there are two knitting pearls known as The Selvages, the self-finished edges

do not need to be secured by anything else but the felt feeling

know how to read the felt feeling

know the self-unfinished

see the pancake stacked on the pancake table are two

this kitchen also meat ghosts

when by itself the ghost is still still and still

what is it called when you are looking up and back because this is what the I think is

maybe this is a going forward backward I think, good luck with taking your leave

I was on leave and fist

everything fits together into something in disappears un

this means the sun is a mirror hanging to explain why you read nut case

this is whatever it’s called when you enter into an I don’t know house

this is the first room of the house I don’t know decrease self

this is where you must take off your three fish shoes crease elves

know how the emphasis is on the kitchen table which might read emptiness

know how this table is made out of growing hay. Know how this is

how to name a barn. Know how he the second part of two always stacks things on top

of each other shovel the dirt pancake and in law

I have seven sisters and eight horses and the old are two

the second word changes the season into a couch will you join me forever

my parents have 50 horses and a yellow sand beach. I am leaving the small farm for the city to be a baker. I can’t remember how I dressed. You’re one of these, one of those, you

are two

see how in the end the apron covers his eyes. This is a strange apron folded funny, because this is a concrete fold. He’s holding the apron over his eyes. Why? I think he is blindfolding himself by folding concrete. The something he doesn’t want to see is that no one can see maybe. And he keeps folding folds up by folding folds up. He folds folds up by always saying if, if if if, or if or or are two, it’s like saying and everywhere. But look, why don’t I just call the writer up and ask the writer what this and if means? He’ll say reading authors or he won’t. I have the writer’s home number here. He has two.

they is always two

this the firework that brings this word light over the valley of would

would the wood the strings the metal

Men’s underthings are hanging up by the frozen sacks of cod.

The elastic give in the racks beside the frozen flesh. I’m guessing you

In the Bonus now.

Well it’s not like Walcott’s cedar canoes, agreeing with the waves to forget my life as a tree. I can’t

this the way to fold something into a heart. This is the heartbeat and here is the heart. The boyfriend

is not

a problem, they are two. Must be light lite like

now my tears are glitter to him or hymn

this is to operate on the hymn up there

now my now memory does not make alone two

now the gravel road in the country are two. Anyway, this is the word gravel.

It’s rocky or muddy or a road and two. How do you say it’s a hard this way? It’s not a stable or ever

concerning the eyes, adapting to complete darkness takes about forty minutes

and two how do you say when I get there will I have arrived

in your language

Issue 11

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