“Newsfeed” is William Lessard‘s fantastically uber-modern poem from our Winter 2019 issue.
{ X }
TAKING THE 8th AEVENUE L
to get a seat going east
the pride of non-migratory birds that managed to eat through winter
video of woman folding laundry
slowed to ten hours
—domesticity,
the new #kink
Pope going off-message,
suggesting dustpan
awaits us at the bottom of the steps
FB data profile defines me as “very liberal,”
tone of Thanksgiving uncle implied
acorn aggro
asking white people with dreadlocks “why?”
Benjamin using “loss of aura” as getaway car
empire thinks
it’s a lot better looking than it is
5 pizza rolls acquired (because additional 15,000 was not available)
hoping it will be April
sometime in May or June
Russian spy poisoned 50 miles south of London had been looking for a cure for his cough
passing away
after a brief wellness
Barthes pretends to talk to mother on payphone that chirps Heidegger in his ear
wondering what the “it” phone is
that celebrities are throwing at assistants
posting oasis
beneath my nose on Airbnb
promoting with photos
tiny people napping/making love
along my upper lip
ketchup slices shaped like cheese singles but looking like fruit leather
kombucha as mythical country
where everyone has great abs
text-based
tuna
time warp
hungry for a fresh semiotic
—the old categories blurred on new menu with Lilliputian font, Brobdingnagian prices
the defenestration of Chet
friend says he’s out “Herzog-ing,”
his term for walking in the desert and considering the Abyss
morning show for night people that begins at 1 p.m.
review of the Bowie show at Brooklyn Museum:
it was nice to revisit a time
when people still believed in the future
bed that folds
upon itself
to protect
sleepers during earthquakes
—Dracula’s enforced nightly entombment; the robot version
rows of cartoon food
in the base of the crypt;
can’t be the Apocalypse if there’s snacks
Tuesday
taco
Talmud
choosing the Chekovian
whenever someone asks “what’s wrong?”
FB reminds me that 5 years ago today
i was floating over the city
—arms, legs spreading
a leaf’s expanse
woman blames “windy day” for cocaine found in purse
precious bead of obsidian placed in the blowhole
Clarice Lispector drawing stippled line
along the horizon of her eyelid
line she calls her “velvet lathe”
man with diamond bow tie mistaking it
for one of her sentences
Imaginary as the punch you never threw
desiring-machine,
tonight lacking toilet paper
no palm trees in Marxism
theory the gaze that thinks nudity is molecular
Tarkovsky ordering lunch
for all the hungry tummies in The Zone
when the worst
thing you did today
was cream cheese
digging
for the person you were promised
a few layers down
woman on my right
burns 650 calories;
man on my left
guzzling
bright blue liquid
burns 70
being old means hating yourself for the right reason
Louise saving a seat at the center of the cage
meat ecology
spectators on the other side of the border
watch the bombings
from beach chairs
Toulouse
tiki
tattoo
woman asks “chaise longue or chaise lounge?”
—linguistic Waterloo
in the pig fight,
the pig
always has
the home field advantage
trailer for a new restoration
pink light
sparking
you will hear music until your call is answered
{ X }
WILLIAM LESSARD has writing that has appeared or is forthcoming in McSweeney’s, American Poetry Review, Best American Experimental Writing, Hobart, Brooklyn Rail, Hyperallergic. His visual work has been featured at MoMA PS1.
FLAPPERHOUSE 