Poems by Mark Young.

A line from Mamie van Doren

I cannot host the Little
League baseball Asia-Pacific
Tournament because mold
is growing in my home. May

be a software issue—the
site's robots.txt does include
a vision quest. Perhaps it's
a parasite spread by cats.

But either way, comes very
close to the scene in my
book, Living with the Dead,
that spells out exactly why

democracy is necessary for
Disneyland, & just when
you should visit your vet
about erectile dysfunction.

 

---

 

Piath

It is midnight
before I 
get out to do 
my lunchtime 

shopping. Dogs
follow me. In the
streetstall under
the peppertree

a single-engined
beggar offers
me a Piaf CD 
autographed

by the singer
herself. I
buy it with no
regrets & sign

my name
immediately 
below hers. The 
supermarket

calls me Al. I
don’t care. We 
are in love,
Edif & me.

 

---

 

geographies: Mount Palomar

The research is still
in its early days; 
but, based on 
thermal imagery &
a very close affinity 
between the anthropo-
morphic & zoomorphic 
characteristics evidenced
here, it would appear
as if the only extant 
satyr play of Euripides
was the first object
to be put into a sun-
synchronous orbit.

 

---

 

uncools

His
translations of
Apollinaire reek of

formaldehyde when it's
absinthe we're
after.

 

---

 

 The geographical speaker

She said: I am
moving to the
west. Stepped
to the left.

Changed her
orientation.
Facing south
not north now.

Said. I am 
moving to the 
west. Stepped
to the right.

The cardinal 
point is that
she knows the
cardinal points

intuitively. A
compass in 
her head. En-
compassing.