Goldblum | Lumberjack
Jeff Goldblum is a bad lumberjack | the shirt fits fine but his rope work’s wanting |
I’ve witnessed his slack blocks | his pulleys idle | the trunks come down in shavings
mostly | he sweats at the sight of the chipper | is dwarfed by the really big saw | I get
nervous just watching | he steps into his harness | strains the shoddy bowline |
hands down another wood-skin sliver | I pray the knots will hold | he yawned this
morning | the stretch almost cracked his shoulder | had him retching at the porcelain
a full five minutes before the dizzy spell passed | how can he manage all that tension
| can’t always wait for the gale to ease | day in day out | the body will yank itself apart
if you let it
Hogan | Water
Paul Hogan tracks water underground | loves nothing more than its tongue’s slip
through rock | he seeks the ultimate passage | buys a hundred yard stretch in the
Pyrenees | a well targeted ad campaign | patrons pay handsomely to throw
themselves down the swallow hole | the liquid dark chatters | they’re borne through
limestone | cold under their palms | stuck in the throat | the slick press of water builds
| when the surge is released they’re launched up to 40ft in the air | into sunlight |
Hogan hordes the cash | enough to buy a prefab house | plants it on the watershed
and stands at the windows in the offseason | watches the rain fall | his great plethora
of birds coming home to roost
Depp | Lido
Johnny Depp runs the lido | its sporadic tidal pool perhaps follows some other moon |
guests do as they’re told | sit where the tables lie | it changes daily | it’s a popular
wedding venue | Depp wears a morning suit | he once ate salmon en croute standing
at the maitre d’s station | he once took a young couple away for the weekend | he
once waded out to the storm grate and removed an obstruction the size of his torso |
his dogs stalk the sea walls | Depp throws lumber into the misty distance for them to
chase | the dogs return with wet stomachs | splinters in their mouths
____________
Luke Palmer's second pamphlet, ‘In all my books my father dies’ is available on Red
Ceilings Press. His debut pamphlet, ‘Spring in the Hospital’, won the Prole Pamphlet
prize in 2018. His debut novel, ‘Grow’ (Firefly Press) was published in July. He runs the
HOURS Writers workshop in Bristol.
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