Critics Page
Excerpt from A Year from Today
finally I love
Glenn Branca hip to his tuning system cook to it
pour two glasses eat the Shakshouka heat drifts me
forget it on simmer
but you cannot destroy
the yolk of an egg
within the vibration of a string
is the entire harmonic series
dog barked at a running boy
again responsibility bar raised the walk has to
have style I bark at the same person too
such is an anger
received so
young
guitars thrashing peaceful in
equilibrium
a black sabbatical =
you can never stop working
+++
reading a long book about real life
catastrophe maybe
it’ll stop me from dreaming
up my own hot afternoon drift
wake DRINK WATER FOOL the problem
with doing things you love all day
is like being on speed
worrying can make you think you’re exerting
some control over the situation like not enjoying yourself can make time
drag perverse fountain of youth when there was no joy
and a whole life ahead drift
then an ice cream spoon
falls to the floor
+++
the map says catch the D from Dekalb
signage says B MTA worker tells me no I have to take the Q
wait for the Q and the D comes was she right or wrong
I get on the D she was wrong triumphant on Prince!
picking up a cord I’ll surprise K with some shorts for the lake
shopping in Soho is wicked feel that judgment or is it sudden
resonance of K saying that I looked like
a foreign exchange student in my hat and back pack
all the shorts are ugly find some pants
for myself uniform fetish vibe I know what I’d
do with my money cultivate an excessive wardrobe guy on F home
asks if anyone is listening is anyone awake for his speech
about illegal incarceration make eye contact tail end
of independence day weekend kid glares his girl-
friend leaning into his shoulder all of our fantasies
offered counterpoint look for reasons not to feel
anxious nature’s remedy is people pull handle in case of
emergency I’ve worked hard on my infrastructures and it’s hard
so don’t pull that handle pull out green notebook Hank
said he’s sitting on a donut “like a dickweed” glad I jotted
that down and to follow up with him “do you want to be
a thing that limps or do you want to be a player?” I forgot who…
Claudia? a Sicilian said “you’re Sicilian you shouldn’t even be
working” and god I ROARED that afternoon in the empty bar : “all I want
is a little reaction” Tina Turner in Rite-Aid man on F last week
chatting up young woman “41 years in NYC and I’ve never seen the Statue
of Liberty” and “New Jersey? No offense but you look like a California
woman” I’ve been quoting Cher in Moonstruck since 1987
except I slap myself in the face SNAP OUT OF IT her way
of saying BE PRESENT my proto-Buddha accept that I’m not going to
like you for what boils down in geologic time for another 45 minutes
+++
butterflies Monday through Friday
morning in my stomach
is it the conditions of life before I check my work email
or my relationship with
my org called a building a facility today
talking to a friend and a room within a venue
REPORTS
GALORE
and chores fill bucket with hot water
one foot in tub
one out slip but catch balance
no rags use old pair of cotton underwear my life in dog hair
get to kitchen table knock over chair
balanced there hits back of
my head
I guess I’d rather be
doing something else like nothing
Contributor
Stacy SzymaszekSTACY SZYMASZEK is the author of the full length collections Emptied of All Ships, Hyperglossia, hart island, Journal of Ugly Sites and Other Journals, and, forthcoming, A Year From Today. Journal of Ugly Sites and Other Journals won the 2015 Ottoline prize from Fence Books. She is the current Director of the Poetry Project at St. Mark's Church.