Endi Bogue Hartigan - Five Poems
Editor’s note: the four image-paired poems below are selections from Endi’s chapbook , the seaweed sd treble clef, forthcoming from Oxeye Press.
Gift log
the sea gave us
fruta del mar
the slipping world gave us
sippy cups
the nuclear plant
gave a mascot
prayer gave her
an axis
prayer gave her
a me and thou
the sea gave us
sea legs
extremes gave us
extremes replayed
the near miss the
nearness of you
the sea gave gifts
unfathomable
the rain falls
on the sea
for lack of
roots and trees
the kelp gave off
death tease
the defense firm
gave new jobs
defense gave
us offense
the scent gave off
a neural hint
an axis-less
event occurred
we stood in some
extreme exposure
exposure gave us
storm names
Arctic Blasts
pell mell hail
containment gave
containment failed
prayer gave her
a fence for prayer
a thou and me
exposure sees
percents exposed to
radioactive leaks
the word thou gave
a formal lease
the news gives
us the creeps
it’s raining on the sea
the sea’s defense
unfathomable
as merely thou or thee
the sea falls
on the sea
selection from the seaweed sd treble clef
whysay whylisten
to the body sleepwalking
reading wrinkles
around dream
is it action to read of
weaponexport schoolbusbundled
bombreport is it action to carry
the body past
past anything saying itself&
said sleeping people sd
exposure spirit& veildrop&
heardpass said edge sd
would learn to say again
to believe in some maternal peripheralyes
knot test of
not bundled seagrass
caught reading memes
caught reading comments&
seemed mean whatit sd or
seemed spoton or
seamed stammered comma’d memes
were passed around
as languagebundles insufficient tangles
&no one could agree on
what it sd or oversd so failed
saying sd saxophone
or storkgentle sd
whisper blare ladle hair
sd axe sdsaid so bundled in
agreement here
is it action to move the
body past the spoon of the body
ladling
crimenews headlineknit sickglisten
how can it say that
how can the earth
say that
how can even seaweed read as
handgun lip how canitdothis
the sea couldn’t keep up dojustice
glistenstream seagull rip echocall
so cueneiformish tidefall desperate gift
unlit unfit to be read at all
and shshsh sd weakness
the seaweed sd the least
it could’vesd being rim fled
is it an action
to listen flimsily to ammunitionsale
investment charts
to seek action in the least sight seeing
sea grass lastcracked crabback
insignias seals official branded
cumulus fuel of
justice and injustice washing
each other out
exoskeletal factheavy rimday
but it sd kind cradle
the kindest cradle
P. and A. and M. and L. and
bravest witnessed people tangled cradled
approximate unhelmeted
letterforms of cracking creatures,
speak!