Martha Silano
Do Not Touch the Art
Don’t sip the structure.
Don’t suck the slab.
With the wind do not embrace.
Do not kinetically sway.
Brushstroke by brushstroke, do not broaden.
Do not partake.
Don’t grope the Gorky.
Don’t bear upon the blurring.
Don’t diminish with your contribution.
Don’t woo the welded.
Don’t probe the pastiche of longing and loss.
Butt off the furniture, buddy.
Do not tap the totemic.
Do not lick the verbal.
Do not fall in love.
Don’t ucky the upward.
Don’t fog the relief.
Do not scuff the drama.
Don’t thumb the untransformed.
Don’t denude the negation.
Get your oils away from these oils.
Don’t paw, outsider!
Suppress your arouse.
Stick your increase in a bucket with the snuffed out cigs.
Martha Silano is the author of four books of poetry, including Reckless Lovely (Saturnalia Books 2014) and The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception, winner of the 2010 Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize. Her work appears in Paris Review, AGNI, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, and North American Review, where she was awarded the 2014 James Hearst Prize. She edits Crab Creek Review, teaches at Bellevue College, and curates Beacon Bards, a monthly poetry reading series in Seattle. Her blog is available at http://bluepositive.blogspot.com.
Return to September 2014 Edition
Don’t sip the structure.
Don’t suck the slab.
With the wind do not embrace.
Do not kinetically sway.
Brushstroke by brushstroke, do not broaden.
Do not partake.
Don’t grope the Gorky.
Don’t bear upon the blurring.
Don’t diminish with your contribution.
Don’t woo the welded.
Don’t probe the pastiche of longing and loss.
Butt off the furniture, buddy.
Do not tap the totemic.
Do not lick the verbal.
Do not fall in love.
Don’t ucky the upward.
Don’t fog the relief.
Do not scuff the drama.
Don’t thumb the untransformed.
Don’t denude the negation.
Get your oils away from these oils.
Don’t paw, outsider!
Suppress your arouse.
Stick your increase in a bucket with the snuffed out cigs.
Martha Silano is the author of four books of poetry, including Reckless Lovely (Saturnalia Books 2014) and The Little Office of the Immaculate Conception, winner of the 2010 Saturnalia Books Poetry Prize. Her work appears in Paris Review, AGNI, Ploughshares, American Poetry Review, and North American Review, where she was awarded the 2014 James Hearst Prize. She edits Crab Creek Review, teaches at Bellevue College, and curates Beacon Bards, a monthly poetry reading series in Seattle. Her blog is available at http://bluepositive.blogspot.com.
Return to September 2014 Edition