Mark Young: Visuals & Poems
September 2023
geographies: Yapeet
Le Masque Vide
(after the paining by Magritte)
Many believed that politeness
was just a mask, that what was
said may not be what was meant
or thought: or, from the other
side, thought to mean, though
the politeness was reciprocated.
Not quite the bland leading the
bland, but close enough. What
we have here acknowledges
those rules but is much more an-
gular, abrupt, an elbow to the
ribs. All politeness torn away:
the mask is empty; but the words
that hide behind the words be-
hind the mask are now exposed.
A pity we cannot see them all.
Oh no!!! He tried airbrushing it out
The parking lot
is closed for
the duration of
WW2. The long-
time drummer
for U.S. wheat
futures has quit
saying she can
no longer stand
the aroma of roast
malt combined with
classic English
hops. That starts the
Energizer Bunnies
to begin dressing
provocatively.
Some even dream
of getting a tattoo.
A line from Rembrandt van Rijn
We love rags to riches stories. “Spend the
night here,” Balaam said, “in order to pro-
duce a new narrative of European pre-
history.” It’s in our DNA to turn tragedy
into advantage; but when genetics &
archaeology combine, it becomes obvious
there are distinct differences between, say,
a donkey seen from behind & a colonial
liberation war. The former will stop at
nothing to become a ballet dancer, but the
latter is important mainly for the author-
ity it now confers to condone barbaric acts.
geographies: Coonooer Bridge
looking over the overlooked
The American frontier has lots
of scenic views along the road
from New York to Vladivostok
including photocatalytic trans-
formation of organic contamin-
ants & other words you need
to know. We are aware that
viral infections have plagued
humanity since time began,
stemming partially from a
refusal to believe that autism
looks different in girls, & parti-
ally from the fact that many
features often fail to load due
to internet connectivity prob-
lems. Now, adrift in a plethora
of postcolonial studies, we find
ourselves forced to determine
just what is the evidence be-
hind the viral story linking gas
stoves & the gothic in literature.
Spasmodem
His left foot contains a
positronic brain, his right
is a pair of penguins. He
finds it hard to stand, can-
not understand why that
is so. The parts were fine
when he bought them on-
line; though he must admit
that the instructions were
concealed in a panoply &
handwritten in a random
sequence of radioactive
chemicals that did make
them a little hard to read.
◊
Mark Young was born in Aotearoa / New Zealand but now lives in a small town in North Queensland in Australia. He has been publishing poetry for over sixty-three years, and is the author of more than sixty books, primarily text poetry but also including speculative fiction, vispo, memoir, and art history. His most recent books are Your order is now equipped for shipping (2022, Sandy Press); The Advantages of Cable (2022, Luna Bisonte Prods); a free downloadable pdf prompted by the Cantos of Ezra Pound, XXXX Centones; and with the slow-paced turtle replaced by a fast fish, both published in 2023 by Sandy Press. A free downloadable pdf of visuals & poems, Mercator Projected has just been published by Half Day Moon Press.
For more on Mercator Projected: Selected Geographies →
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