29 December 2022

Four Poems by Mark Young

A Night at the Opera

 

The template enters accompanied by

an enclave of characters. There are

 

ducks on the lake inside the window,

busy engaging with some ambiguous

 

sprigs of lavender which had sneakily

grown up overnight. She smiles, &

 

feels her trapezoids shake. Elsewhere

the unseen audience is underwhelmed.

 

 

Let Σ = { a, b }

 

                        I think it's funny we are

             both wearing the same

                             outfit, a cute little channeled

                input with a finite alphabet

 

                      of cardinality, decorated

                         with principles & processes

 

               designed to change subconscious

                    beliefs. Only available from

                   the Auto & Home Supply

                         Store in Kahnawake, Quebec.

 

 

Conjugate Desire

 

This verb is rarely used in con-

tinuous tenses since there is

no real action. What we desire

does not happen. An example.

First Nations peoples still live

with the trauma of colonization;

is recent in the collective memory,

occurring within just a few gene-

rations of those living today. Up

to us to do something about it,

collectively or singly, but we

usually decline to take on the task,

feeling that the weight pushing

against us will be too great. So we

pay lip service, sit back, turn our

backs. Ignore past tensions, even

though they continue to present.

 

 

geographies: Peoria, IL

 

My steel-cut apple risotto is

shaped from a single template

which is a mix of a wedding

event site & a car mechanic busi-

ness. Both are on the National

Registry of Historic Places. There

are 1000s of Illinois historic & pre-

historic locations that have been

designated as important resources

worthy of preservation. I'm so

hoping my risotto will join them.