s w i f t s  &  s l o w s: a quarterly of crisscrossings

When Gravity Grabs Its Gun
Kathleen Reichelt & Rich Ferguson

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Wanting

Dustballs want to be bullet trains.
Bullet trains want to be snails.
Snails want to be crows.
Crows want to be Beethoven’s Fifth.
Beethoven’s Fifth wants to be a fifth of gin.
A fifth of gin wants to be holy water.
Holy water wants to be mud puddles.
Mud puddles want to be rainbows.
Rainbows want to be nooses.
Nooses want to be church bells.
Church bells want to be bongs.
Bongs want to be butterflies.
Butterflies want to be buffalo stampedes.
Buffalo stampedes want to be angels dancing on the head
of a pin.
Angels dancing on the head of a pin want to be solar
systems swirling.
Solar systems swirling want to be sandboxes.
Sandboxes want to be mountains.
Mountains want to be ladybugs.
Ladybugs want to be wolves.
Wolves want to be radios.
Radios want to be moments of silence.
Moments of silence want to be lightning and thunder.
Lightning and thunder want to be serial killers.
Serial killers want to be reborn into baby Buddhas.
Baby Buddhas want to grow up to be electric guitars.
Electric guitars want to be junkyard dogs.
Junkyard dogs want to be anything but a cat.
A cat wants to be a Cadillac.
A Cadillac wants to be a garbage truck.
A garbage truck wants to be a wet dream.
A wet dream wants to be heaven.
Heaven wants to be a dive bar.
A dive bar wants to be diamonds.
Diamonds want to be handfuls of dirt.
Handfuls of dirt want to be thrown into graves.
Graves want to be winds.
Winds want to be human.

And humans are forever wanting 
to be 
everything 
at once.

certain days feel so heavy

like that final weight pallbearers carry to the grave.
yet say the correct password,

and the moon will allow you into its secret room 
behind the shine.

that’s where good luck wears the scent 
of new laundry behind its ears,

where our brightest essence illuminates dark waters.

the clock tells me when it claps its hands, 
i can open my eyes.

it’s then i’ll be older than i remember 
and younger than i care to forget.

should you see me holding something to the light,
it’s a letter i meant to send you

before all these troubles left their shadows at our door.

 
 

The Autopsy of Democracy

Upon reviewing 
the autopsy of democracy, 
will you mention that it died 
a slow protracted death? 

Will you reveal 
that its stomach was riddled 
with cruelty, 
its intestines marred 
with embezzlement, 
its esophagus savaged 
with lies? 

Will you overlook the fact 
that its body 
committed many racist acts 
but was continually found innocent 
by a jury of its peers? 

Upon reviewing the autopsy of democracy, 
ask yourself if the corpse 
resembles a black body 
swinging from a tree. 

Ask yourself if the noose marks 
around its neck 
will preclude it
from an open casket ceremony.

What My Inner Executioner Has Told Me 
On Many Sleepless Nights

No blindfold, 
no last cigarette, 
no last words,

no last meal:
self-doubt’s firing squad
shows no mercy

Paintings by Kathleen Reichelt.  Poetry by Rich Ferguson. 

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Kathleen Reichelt is a visual artist, writer and performer for stage and film.  Her images have been published in Maintenant, Paris Lit Up, and have been exhibited in galleries and museums in New York, Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa, Quebec City, Mainz, Germany and Gwangju, South Korea.  Reichelt is winner of the Evan Hughes playwriting contest for her absurdist comedy “Who Killed the Curator”. Her  plays have been staged and adapted to film.  Reichelt tours with Wes Rickert, performing as the poetry performance duo Burning Iceberg.  She contributes as a performer, writer and director on films and recordings at their studios in the Thousand Islands, Canada.

Pushcart Prize-nominated poet Rich Ferguson has shared the stage with Patti Smith, Wanda Coleman, Moby, and other esteemed poets and musicians. Ferguson has been selected by the National Beat Poetry Foundation, Inc. (NBPF), to serve as the State of California Beat Poet Laureate (Sept. 2020 to Sept. 2022). He is a featured performer in the film, What About Me? featuring Michael Stipe, Michael Franti, k.d. lang, and others. His poetry and award-winning spoken-word music videos have been widely anthologized, and he was a winner in Opium Magazine’s Literary Death Match, L.A. He is the author of the poetry collection, 8th& Agony (Punk Hostage Press), and the novel, New Jersey Me (Rare Bird Books). Ferguson’s newest poetry collection, Everything is Radiant Between the Hates, will be published in January 2021 by Moon Tide Press.
Rich Ferguson →