Counterfeit Edges: Prose Poem

Wednesday Prose Poem: take what you want

I’ve bastardized a silver sunrise — the coin flip has never landed properly, not on those counterfeit edges — but this is more the slice of the moon that changes the room from dark to pale grey — the colour of that shining liquid rock, blinding sleep eyes —

leading the explosive charges to the legs and head and breast — against the will of the drugs that let dirty fingers in and stir up whatever madness they can —

the reasons are looking back because forwards makes no sense —

try to align friable porcelain fingers with eyelids hurting at pieces of the flaking glaze — the mask of the world shattered in a few moments of glass deterioration —

and the wild hair of the manic comes out of insomnia like a fucking torch —

touching the solid movable shade of horror white on the walls, poking into next week to see if it’s worth sticking around, see if the coin lands in my favour for a spell —

or if that paper work delayed oral gratification by not keeping strictly to inbox and outbox — piles of deluded pens that misspell on purpose because they have nothing better to do, like worrying about where their final resting place will be for

a thousand years of decomposition is, as we all know, really an eternity —

J.D. Harms 2021

Prompt:

By now (surely by now!), you know how much I enjoy playing with bizarre syntheses, joining images to carve out an exploration of a mental experience/physical experience. I realize that sometimes makes it difficult to really know/understand what I’m getting at. Part of me wants to help people understand it, precisely; part of me will give up simply because the mental effort isn’t worth my colouring your interpretation, which is a huge part of the value you get out of the activity of reading poetry, anyway. Today’s prompt will be strange, might push you farther than I have till now…I want you to choose ANY portion of the above piece: you could select one image, you could select an entire paragraph. Interpret it according to what it does for you, and use that interpretation to start your own prose poem. Please copy (at the bottom of your piece) the line/section/image you’ve chosen to focus on, and tag me in it!!

Rock on, write on, and READ on!!!

Melissa Coffey Zay Pareltheon Jessica Lee McMillan Viraji Ogodapola Eli Snow Suzanne V. Tanner Lennie Varvarides Joseph Lieungh Dana Sanford Michelle Berry Lane Laurie Perez Lori Lamothe Samantha Lazar Kristie Darling Mimi Bordeaux Jesse M. Gonzalez Vic Spandrio Joe Luca Jeff Langley Paroma Sen Suntonu Bhadra Somsubhra Banerjee Era Garg Rhonda Marrone Betsy Denson Annine Massaro Eleanore Christine Cassandra Armstrong Marilyn J Wolf Dennett Michael Hall Roy Reichle Andrea Juillerat-Olvera Alan Asnen Sally A Mortemore Connie Song Alicia Lee Colasurdo Amy Jasek Amy L. Bernstein Ann Marie Steele Barry Dawson Jr. IV Michelle Berry Lane Janaka Stagnaro Mohan Boone Sydney J. Shipp Sydney Duke Richey Joe Luca Michael Hall Danielle Loewen Gary Chapin Caitlin Rebecca Wry Welwood Roy Reichle Rowen Veratome Brigitte Bebey Pablo Pereyra Georgiana Petec Renee Podunovich Enne Baker Chris Mooney-Singh allie wisniewski