Nick Sturm

The Era of Confusion Begins

I want to be a smaller pony     I want
to be a silver cup     For the flowers to
stand up & furnish my life with joy
I don’t want to be a pile of duct tape
& sun     I don’t want to be a candle
burning in a tiny temple     No
I want to be some handsome
acoustic behavior     All formlessness
& you & me wet with content     The sea
overwhelming us     A big fumbling
window collecting in the sky     There’s nothing
I’d rather be doing than having

elaborate hedonistic parties     Than using

my mouth to love you     But now it’s just
me     Me with my pony hands burning down
to rain     The sun making noise all over

my pony face     Your face telling me

from afar there is no smaller pony
 

A Whorl That Ascends

My hands do not think     They get
lit up     The air just happy

something is happening     Something
I can get my hands into     Maybe make

some noise or attract your attention
using a foam finger     A large finger
that I swing mercilessly     Overhead
there are a lot of extra heads

belonging to birds
Also someone     I am not sure

if there is a better way to say this
Someone looking at the cloud tops
from above     Like what is a law
& how can I ever repeat this
using words     At the exhibit I touch

everything with my mouth     My mouth
does not attract much attention     It acts
so unsure not of itself
but of the world     The world
the shape of these colors     What
an exhibit this is     What a way
to believe in this world & its clouds
All open & a whorl     My hands
when I land dressed in light     Where
I land     like my mouth
is not up to me

Nick Sturm is the author of the chapbooks WHAT A TREMENDOUS TIME WE’RE HAVING! (iO Books, 2012) and A Basic Guide (Bateau, 2012). His poems have appeared in Aesthetix, Forklift, Ohio, Jellyfish, jubilat, Sixth Finch, TYPO, and elsewhere. He is a PhD candidate at Florida State University.