BROWSE Columns
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Your eye
binds you seriatim,
be you saditty or simple:
tears Mistress Aural from your air –
says, Master Oral: Sit there –
Derrière.
A lingual lip-lock,
I strike you
soundless on sight.
Look me up, look me down
– Mongol rock it! –
Or your old right-to-left
or left-to-right…
Can’t help it! Can you?
that reflex follow –
Call it R-E-S-P-E-C-T, but
no need to spell it out for me.
I’m your religion, Old School, uh-huh!
(the part you read, if not believe.)
Call me the sin-original
Saccadic cultist – Umm!
um-um!… my rhetor’s sweet smoke!
Br-ea––––the! a word of me, you can’t do otherwise –
so to speak ; )
Sans-serif or stroked, these curves
span the scope of your thought…
your vision…
I’m a Grapheme-ical Phenom, that’s me!
You doubt I’m your Alpha
& all-that to the Omega?
In stone, for all time, or on paper –
Built to last and fit to print:
No pas’ been passed I can’t reframe –
No future’s writ
that I don’t name…
James Spencer, originally of Detroit, lives with his family in Lausanne, Switzerland. Current stanza: teaches public speaking, recently workshopped poetry with Maurice Riordan & Richard Scott. Also, a student (again) : École de français langue étrangère, l’Université de Lausanne. His first journal-published poem, “Character“, is on La Piccioletta Barca; before that a community dance company Beacon Dance in Atlanta used his poem “Kinship / Skinship” from a Medium site and they cited it as inspiration, which made his day for a few days. Previous stanza: U.S. regional actor, MFA American Rep Theatre / Moscow Art Theatre School.
