by: Aaron Simon
How can language both ground us in our experience and shape how we reflect (on) our various meanings? What is or can be the story or our lives? Aaron Simon claims that he “won’t pretend to know the secret,” but he doesn’t have to pretend. The secret is clearly safe with him. He shares it in his poems…
TOUCHED AND GONE
We searched the wrong places —
forced air, equivalence
outside the appendix
in dispassionate leaves.
But time never stopped
recusing its deniers
and December’s dusky wash
brought us to our knees.
The first vintages are here
all the way from Kentucky
It’s key-stroke or bust
Light box blues.
SKY STORY
1.
I won’t pretend to know the secret
it’s hard enough to think out loud
flying over the spotted coast
with no ideas of my own
Who said it’s harder
to give up love than life
the smallness and the greatness
like scattered parts of Icarus
that floated back to earth
Was it Céline
in a nod to the hôpital
knowing one can’t write with blood?
First do no harm
2.
There’s a lake in my imagination
only distinguished by its pinkness
I mustn’t forget I didn’t exist once
it’s the height of all sensation
But this is not my story
the airspace is controlled
small roads go to the lake
and those are real roads down there
My Tito’s Vodka is from Austin
Watson’s Tonic is from Xiamen
follow the cloud procession
with half-shut eyes
it’s why I pick a window
SKY STORY 2
Forgetting to breathe
in fluted light
she redacts the sky
high over the terminal
like a bronze bust of Mercury
grounded by design
What does she know
of takeoff and landing
where language becomes pressure
a story of clauses
both profound and inert?
This doesn’t need to be rhetorical
fog gives the perfect cover
a classic disappearance
she’ll make up the time in the air
Aaron Simon is the author of Carrier (Insurance Editions, 2006), Periodical Days (Green Zone Editions, 2007), and most recently Senses Himself (Green Zone, 2014). His poems have appeared in several publications, including Sal Mimeo, Exquisite Corpse, Shiny, 12th Street, Pax Americana, Hyperion Journal of the Arts, Harriet the Blog, and TheThe Poetry. A graduate of New School University in NYC, he lives in SF, CA, and works in the financial services industry.
Stayed tuned for Aaron Simon Part Two coming next week!
Header art is by the incredibly talented Teun Hocks.
