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Syntax Issue 10
Denver Syntax
{crescendo of a moviegoer}
  paul adrian mabelis



Waiting for the autograph - the arm out approach.

Roped off by red tape, the next line down

more open, fast moving - flickering hypocritical,

inimical as an epileptic surgeon surging towards an open valve

seeking out the name of the constellation.


There, the theatre was not absurd or urgent, that it was so ordered –

like popcorn kernels - orville redenbacher, each oeuvre

worn one trillion times over bursting upward in flavor

as were all the other possibly imaginative archetypes or indelible identities

indented in a spasmodic psyche, the largest confirmation of all

natural rights, indebted indefinitely, detained embedded

restrained, by bards retargeting your non-retentive retinas to be

retold tales of retarded poinsettias drying on the too dry ground,

dying without deluge uprooted in an abrasive aridity

haze of mars or mercury - eyes in a drought of vision

lost in the willing disbelief of reality.


The medium and the art form - one mask laughing, one mask crying,

the mirror of the crowd sighing in laughter and ignorance

drying their chins, saying Gesundheit - droning on during the credits

dipping their hands in buttered objects like clumsy giants,

the perverted clouds outside nothing like candy,

the carpet lights slowly igniting then - ordered anarchy

the collective herding toward daylight

til you find yourself again standing

for the cold water

of the fountain

near the exit.