BRENDAN SHERRY / 4 POEMS — always crashing

Please note that, due to line length, these pieces are best viewed on laptop or in landscape mode

B LETTING GO

It is odd enough That When noahs dove returned x he said What Do You Get
When you cross Our family with a flood x Land Ho x wich was a Mother joke bc
Holding the plantbranch x she gave it to us to hold in hand saying For When the World
is not what wrecks and Disrespect and x water x have you afraid, my love

See our Child hood water branches all comeing Together x Mom, Consider the flood
that makes our mad River x maybbe its nothing More than a mere color of Blue
Including the stuggle sx for conciliation, in just us Two x

There are Bits of this World I Still x Wish that I could Fly to your bed side x to hold
in hand x and know with you
Heres a funny one One night Im working ina Hotel Lobby, Nobody their but the Wisk wiskx
Of how Im cleaning it andthen Whooshx Slam
Goes the Big Automaitic Lobby Door x nothing x nothing x and then
In Flutters a little snowwhite moth x and someone goes Get The Man Some Help

Ok and an Unfunny thing x Im scared We had the words x to know but We Swept in shoveling x
them Away x
And all of them Are the rays of Flood water Now from the snow Flurries We used to watch
Overtakingg x in the thawing sun
That it wont be All Staying in that rushing weather x Floating around togteher instead x because
Diving then x and deeper diving, x all our doves, have Got outrun

IF YOU CAN RIDE / FINDING HWYS THROUGH

IF you can ride x Do until therer More lakes than not x more lakes withx sky x
lakes with Highway spots x
Find them from saying x I reflect the BestBuys x and I reflect her blue and her blue
I reflect also To x as to Them youre Thee x thee, reflecting x if Thee still Rides
on what we done x And said
On x done and Regret x Should of done, never x Should of loved x Said and regret x
Like Thee o x significant
Like the glass x the arrowlines of little Rains x little effects of little tracing Rainds
on the glass x regretting
The darts and x there Harrowing x the parts before the Heartshape arrowlinesx
If you can ride still x Do, and do, and Do x the Nextplace wont never be so
easy x finding hwys through

WE DON’T FLY / THE TIMING CHAIN

We dont fly that flag At home x as Its become A Sign for Pls Drive To My House
When Im Not Here And Burglarize My Guns x
Gun Burglary being the Main property Crime in Erwin TN

For background Know that Once they hanged xX an elephent in Erwin TN x
They said She Killed her driver x (they named her, Murderous maryx
And once always x Because an unspeaking giant Steps onthe Spine of a person
she Makes there spine to a cartoon Spring x
That spring is a Coil x then Coils, the Snakecoils defensive Bullshit start waving
a Yellow Flags x to Dont Step On
The Gadsden Snake x to have on lincense plates here and there x For who the Latin
is x Nolime Tangere

I think The Spines the main thing still x its Vestingial evidence Man once hada tail
He put Behind s legs x a body rope, the skulls brainshell
You dont repair a Car without the parts or Labor x without the tools or the Office
Likewise parts x of a thing do neverthe less remain After some long wanted x
or judicial Sacrifice
A Custome pain Faced with the Hypodx Hypo Thetical of x giants hanging
from a Crane
Orthe Transmixxion Valve Body orx the Headgasket nor x the Links, that swing
the timing chain

THE LONG GRASS / A BARBER / ITS EVEN LESSER GUIDE

The long grass didnt scare me Unttil the one day x I cut myself On a reed
All the sudden x it was Slow in comeing but it did x And I Had To Wait a while
On Little Blood x From this new Between x

Don’t include this When you Approach me for my fears
I’m asking you x I will remember Even Without you Drwing blood
From My fingers x
Like If such Perfect Rubyx Were suddenly to fall,
now, sitting there x
The length of its arc would be to wide x to measure of Whatever The things x
Itself are That cutx that caught, Us, by surprise

I justjolted awake From a Barber In a town I left x Simple x and rain x
Brother orx Mom x Dog running By the road x The gentle
Fears of always been, just tender Until causing harm x consider
The sound of a IA train, or x That the white Dust, Passing x car, going
Into Where the house still sits x Where you left it behind

The gravels The rooms, the rain X the Creek x the quiet blinds drawing
Then, x and even now drawing
Quieter x fear That you didn’t leave, enough, again
Afraid if Left x would Leave Anew between x the field and trees Beside
Our one bloods xOne most Culminating River, x and Its even
lesser guide

Brendan Sherry lives in North Carolina. Recent work has appeared in Poetry Northwest, Annulet, DIAGRAM, The Spectacle and elsewhere.