by Henry Luzzatto
Strip Mine
You turn up in my dreams like a penny
Cold until you’re in my hand
Copper and memories
only mint in the past
Robots, if programmed properly, always know what to do next
Fuggue
The speaker in the stove is a half-measure ahead of the
Speaker in the toilet which is a half-measure ahead
Of the speakers in the shower tiles
And the speakers in the chandelier are spinning so hard they doppler
Every g sharp to g
All the accidentals to normal
And every Beethoven back to Bach
Elements
In the long and edgeless prologue of before I
could smell dust mites and evaporated ethanol
allium and aspirated tar
free hydrogen and tooth filling
nose pollen and leather wax
swamp mud mixed in with space heater exhaust
rubber and cold cold water
The Riff from Black Dog
found
caked in shit in a too-small cage
took him home with the windows down
gave him a proper french name
If other dogs were
all spinning energy and upchuck frenzy
he would fall and lie and sigh with endless weight
like a man in a fur suit
that was too small for him
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Henry Luzzatto is a Brooklyn-based writer, editor, and musician. Originally from Suffolk, Virginia, his work is featured in The Baffler, Slate, body fluids and more.