(7)
silverblack 5.5 miles across lake
artificially holding rare mineral runoff
phonesludge or TVvomit or tech side
effects
and even
“green technology” is what’s created this lake
such human imprint a sign of God or
nature
is amazing scaffold for the future
imagine it the
water traded on futures
exchanges
technology pooling
in this shining
lake somewhere
someone tweeting a little thing
rising flood waters cute dog swimming
or deathbloated pig floating or someone
pointing out the iPhone shining beacon in the wreckage
Baogang Tailings Dam
we drove along a dirt road which wasn't guarded
climbed a huge black mound about three to four stories
high and got to the shore of the lake I read
got curious opened the phone and found
everywhere
the smallest screws hundreds of these
black pipes through which sludge was coming from
pool of liquid metallic wastewater
evaporating forming
the firmament of Genesis foretelling the
growth
of Apple and their sexy phones leaking
pools of liquid metallic
wastewater evaporating forming the
firmament of money
silverblack its sludge phone caress
able and slick technoerotics
stroked in a boustrophedon till
the screen till the vast sludge lake can
even be seen on Google Maps
(21)
you wake up determined
access the music of the city
cling to salvage rhythms
you cling to the clangs you
breathe step to them
their human clamor beautiful
awash in sounds untraceable
light you see it but can’t
describe define detract from
but you know the animals
killed by Florence will be
buried, composted
or "rendered" for
usable parts or
now Smith, who counts himself
lucky
that his flock survived, is
looking to quickly
move his chickens to
processing plants
before the weekend before you
Travis Sharp is author of the poetry collection Yes, I am a corpse flower (Knife Fork Book 2021), the artist’s book one plus one is two ones (Recreational Resources 2018), and the chapbook Sinister Queer Agenda (above/ground press 2018). He also co-curated Radio: 11.8.16 (Essay Press 2017) with Aimee Harrison and Maria Anderson. He has an MFA in Creative Writing and Poetics from the University of Washington, Bothell, a PhD from the SUNY Buffalo Poetics Program, and is currently a postdoctoral fellow in the SUNY Buffalo Department of English. Since 2019, he is Executive Editor at Essay Press.