from
synthroid,
released July 20, 2019
Spoken word by Adam Marston reading "nothing static is syrup"
# # #
nothing static is syrup
after Rod Smith
you are not comfortable with leading
not lava surging under the ocean floor
you are not your favorite brick wall
begging for Toronto graffiti
you are not buried in the eye of a drunken sailor
nor the television static between charms
you are not an unlosable scene of work
you are not the Halloween scarecrow tied to the parking meter in April
nor the cheery Uber driver who clutches Jess by the ribs
you are not pretending to dream about talking circles to bond with dad
you are not the black cigarette tumbling downtown on the hill of snow
you are not the man balancing eggs and ducking into a police cruiser
you are not repotting plants or casting a ring into the waves
you in the long moment, you between the tinsel and punch
you are not a musical contingency helping money shift hands
you are not glass finch halves anchoring the street magician’s proof
you are not a real flood, rolling silver into autumn and too-wide boots
you are not parallel with death nor perpendicular with the muse
you are not flattened stems wedged in public hearts for reuse
you are not stitching Buddhist reincarnation with God in an office building
you are not the world shrinking its last mosses in a good house
you’re the one swerving in the rain
spilling wine into other cups
you’re sight,
the gulls-eye curve to horizon lunch
and the cling that weighs soil
against offers to return
to thinking gone by morning
but do you mean exhibits fade?
you in all of Chicago’s Chriskindlmarkt blush
you with siblings and itemized receipts
your undiminished grip, and you say let’s stare
O begin to use