REUS

 

by Tyler Cain Lacy

 

 

 

 

How strange           a town

in which

 

           a world

 

 

         *

 

altogether set

apart

 

one could say innocent

one could say pure

 

but one wouldn’t be right

but one tends to

 

   a world

 

within

a system

 

of lines

 

         of light shining

 

down some streets

 

but not necessarily

 

others

 

 

         *        

 

In the morning

we seek out

 

those ones

 

and pass

over those

ones

 

        a beggar

        appears

 

robs you

of your ease

to walk these streets            untouched

 

as your hand remains

in its pocket        

        

                 untouched

 

as this world

 

of open

hands

 

untouched

 

 

         *

 

I never remember

this or that

 

in Catalan so

 

when I speak I make

sure I’m close enough

to things I make

sure I’m far enough

from things for it to go

either way.

 

 

         *

 

To turn my memories

back          into experience

 

       and to keep

 

them there

 

To bring my senses

to meaning and

 

to sense.

 

 

         *

 

This world in which

 

people wave “bye”

as they pass

 

not

 

      “hi.”

 

           Déu

Adéu

 

         A day

 

in reverse

 

“I never got a word in.”

 

 

         *

 

There is a kind of rhythm

 

To walking in the streets

 

There is a certain shoulder

 

To fit inside your shoulder

 

Perdona                    Ho sento

 

           “Pardon me”                       “I feel it”

 

Per dir-ho clar, la llum és un parany

Cap horitzó no em tempta com aquest

de ratlles lleus que traço jo mateix

i no em limita ni m'encercla. Clavo,

volenterós, les ungles a la nit

per obrir carreranys a tots els somnis  ¹

 

                  Per dir-ho clar,

 

To speak clearly,

 

                  To put it clear

 

         Per dir-ho clar,

 

    So to speak

 

 

         *

 

and the question

 

of inspiration

 

if I can speak

 

of such

 

a thing

 

of course

 

if I can breathe

 

 

         *

 

At work at the vegetable store

 

they told her she would be so much more

 

 

that I would be

 

lifted

        up

 

    and supported

 

 

but all she does is demonstrate

 

reusable bags.

 

“And you, do you love

the world?”

 

 

         *

 

But a beggar

 

to cast us out

 

of orbit

 

with one another

 

 

floating

 

 

       “not forms

         but the marrow

         of forms,

 

         pure music

         with a body so lean

         it could

 

         stay in the air”  ²

 

 

         *

 

“Think you could see yourself

settling down

here?”

 

a proper canvas-

 

sing of his plight

 

at the sliding doors

of the supermarket

 

 

         *

 

The difficulty

of painting

 

that which moves

         must move

 

in order to arrive

 

at something

 

someplace.

 

The stupidity.

 

To think things

will stop for me

 

or for you.

 

 

         *

 

that sense that

 

I’m not who

I thought

I was

 

         A building

         was moved

         and replaced

         with a tree

         some pigeons

         a lot of trash

         and stray cats

 

through the streets

with my

head

 

in my

 

hands

 

 

         *

 

         He needs

 

what I have

to

 

    his two kids

 

a paper cup

 

if anything

 

        a decent human

 

being          at all

 

     kind

 

anyone?

 

 

         *

 

People

 

must be the most

interesting

 

              things

 

 

         *

 

Do you shit where you sleep?

All over this world

 

things are being turned

 

to mush.

 

          Mira

 

outside my window

 

a lady poops

 

between

 

two cars.

 

 

         *

 

I close my eyes

 

but the light

peeks

 

         through

 

I light a cigarette but the light

breaks

 

loose                  this world

 

is on fire

 

 

         *

 

and that illusion that

things that happen

 

slow

 

are better more true

 

I too

 

see truth

 

in such illusions

 

 

         *

 

A moto zooms

 

by and

so then

 

go my thoughts.

 

 

         *

 

Walking through the crowd

a cloud

 

of smoke

 

clogs

my thinking

 

 

what I meant

 

to say what I had

in mind

 

 

         the need to hear

 

what I have

to say

 

if anything

 

at all

 

 

         *

 

Spend more time leaning

on things spend more time

leaning towards

things

 

          my friend

 

     an architect

 

                the city

 

of perfect angles        

and calculations

         and curves

 

of the beauties

 

you walk

by

 

 

    Girl what are you wearing

don’t you know

 

it’s cold

 

 

Por el amor de Diós

 

as the beggar says

on his sign

 

              For the love of

 

          God           the world

 

is        with

or without

 

me

 

     unfortunately

 

for this

 

I get

weak

 

in the knees.

 

 

         *

 

The world inside

 

the round

vowels

 

         how I can’t

         quite

 

wrap myself

around it

 

            alrededor

 

is the hardest

 

         how I can’t

         quite

 

be completely                 here

 

because I can’t say it

 

and I can’t be completely          there

 

because I can’t see it

 

how it revolves

 

around

 

me

 

 

         *

 

at a café

over by the church

 

with this really great little sugar packet

 

with a word game on it

 

                                    SOPA DE LETRAS

 

                                    Busca en esta sopa de letras

                                    los nombres de

 

                                    7 FLORES

 

 

A moto zooms

 

by and

so then

 

again.

 

 

 

 

¹ Lines from an untitled poem by Catalan poet Miquel Martí i Pol, from his collection Estimada Marta, Edicions del Mall, Barcelona, 1978. 

 

² From Federico García Lorca’s essay “Play and Theory of the Duende” from In Search of Duende, (trans. Christopher Maurer), New Direction, 1980.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tyler Cain Lacy is an MFA candidate at Columbia College, Chicago.  More of his work can be found at Otoliths and elimae.