Tom Prime : Four poems

 

 

Protracted Fradubio and St. George: A Dialogue

          “when I forgot about trees, I received
          my disability; drowning,

          I wept.”

“what you hold is a hoofprint
breathing.”

          “I do not want to buy a gun. they are
          Nebuchadnezzar’s ego.”

“gravestones glister a baby-like
simulacrum.”

          “mystery O,

          clean the battalion of cheerless    screens, pelf
          PDF of chipped teeth.”

 

 

Hydrophobic

 

Like a pig out of water, pear wine squelched through cheesecloth is a vegetable love, uxorious summer eyes, the Aleian field of crusty butts, and box-store coloured rocks.

 

 

I Feel like a Cabbage

“I’ve got a life of my own,” I told grandpa.

“the crow shat on my hand. the pandemic’s
opening a cubicle
shop—Pandemic and its Masks” 

“you never say anything real,” he
replied. “say something true.”

thought about Pilate, American
modernism; “I don’t like it
here. I don’t know what schizophrenia 

means, but
I keep telling myself I have it.”

 

  

She Could’ve Spoken to Whales

 

“We each have a keyhole inside our nasal cavity,” she    responded. “Your whole
life is leading up to that moment when the key goes
in.” 

“That’s a belief though,” I sniped. “Who do you know who has successfully
inserted their predestined key into their            nose?”

She became a round flotation device of a man—her innards full of helium
pitched her voice, a piccolo. “The whales                           eat a monkey in a penis  
machine.”

 

 

 

 

Tom Prime is starting his second year in the PhD program at Western University in English. He has an MFA in Creative Writing at the University of Victoria (Specializing in Poetry). He has a BA at Western University. He has been published in Brave New Word, Carousel, Ditch, Fjords Review, The Northern Testicle, The Rusty Toque, Vallum, and Watch Your Head. He has two poems accepted for forthcoming publication in Lana Turner Journal.

His first chapbook, A Strange Hospital, was published on Proper Tales Press. His chapbook, Gravitynipplemilkplanet Anthroposcenesters, was published on above/ground press. This along with the two Serif of Nottingham chapbooks (Birds are the birthmarks of flight and Throat Fixtures: The Almanack of Dazzle) are collaborations with Gary Barwin. He has a forthcoming mini chapbook on Blasted Tree Press.

His collaborative collection of poems written with Gary Barwin, A Cemetery for Holes, is available from Gordon Hill Press.