The Brooklyn Rail

FEB 2020

All Issues
FEB 2020 Issue
Poetry

Untitled #x


96. It was not on this block.
But another facing the park
That a square’s angles were rounded
Well curved in a manner most unsettling
All the angles chopped into a jagged arc
A cubist gargoyle’s face
Spun around to hear
The dark whispers rustling the leaves
Shrouded doorstep voices lurk in the ebon mist
Promising freedom from Euclidean impediments
We would no longer be their playthings.
Fear’s fog cat bats us around
Red juices sloshing
Every cell on adrenalin alert
The city’s shoulders try to shrug us off
We roll with it
Shiv its mirror halls
Shambling our way back to its nethers
The benches await us
Spread with the big-box store cardboard
We built ourselves from the overstock
Having consumed the brothers of our better nature
We lie down by our digital stream
Put in more bids for suburban torpor
A bluish black blankness blankets the street
Intermittent data fireworks screen saving until morning.

Contributor

Oliver Baer

Oliver Baer does many things. He was the editor of Cthulhu Sex Magazine and Two Backed Books. His poetry has appeared in Literary Yard, Birds Fall Silent in the Mechanical Sea, Dream People, Bare Bone, Boog City, Infernal Ink Magazine, Cthulhu Sex Magazine, Horror Between the Sheets and Horror Writers Association Poetry Showcase Vol. II. His book of poetry, Baer Soul came out in 2011. His CD of poetry set to music, which came out in 2013, spawned a biannual poetry set to music show A Conclave of Baer. In addition, he has written essays and horror stories. His book, Letters to the Editor of Cthulhu Sex Magazine, came out in October 2019. Recently, his likeness has been seen on film in the documentary, “Tai Chi Club” and heard on radio for the experimental improvisational music show “Improbable Confetti”. He has performed as an unspeakable horror from the depths of the ocean as well as helped to produce Broadway and Off Broadway theater. He is visible using the virtual spectrum of social media by following him on Twitter @obaer and/or Facebook https://www.facebook.com/obaer3 Much of his work can be found at http://tentacularity.wordpress.com

close

The Brooklyn Rail

FEB 2020

All Issues