Monday, November 1, 2021

Travis Sharp : 3 poems from Sing Data

 

 

 

 

(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.