Industrial Photos

Texture is composed peaks arose. Outside itself
turns, whips, and peels. A fine toxic dust
tamps down the want to touch. No, it amps. The
be and the am fall down, hardhats in progression
à la Magritte. Down, down. Be amber.

Churn eight bungalows
with all their subtle nails and timber
the little metal of them, all their TrueValue,
in the “Will it Blend” blender—then you’ll get
the warehoused texture you crave. 

Text her. Or are you made of w(o)o(u)(l)d (a)
(coulda) (shoulda). All her dust ire
falls in rue him. Rust and wood appeal
in their oxy-hewn, tamarind hue,
their selfsame oxytones. Beaminess.

Give saturation minutes to beams
‘round beams. Saltatorial light says salutations. Beamfill!
Light tailors to shape, pitches woo to the beamsome
beam in the eye, to texture. Be a thrice: soothe, ruffle,
develop. All hope, you who enter here.

Deborah Bernhardt's poetry collection Echolalia was published by Four Way Books in 2006 as winner of the Intro Prize for Poetry. She is the 2008-2009 Second Year Poetry Fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center, Provincetown.

 
Copyright © 2009 by Deborah Bernhardt, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of U.S. Copyright law, and it may be archived and redistributed in electronic form, provided that the editors are notified and no fee is charged for access. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the notification of the journal and consent of the author.