Bernadette Mayer

from Poetry State Forest

Bill Orcutt Solo - Festival Météo, Mulhouse, 2017

Playlist: Acoustic Blues

Summer is in full swing now, the heat and humidity a blanket over the Ohio Valley. The oppression of the weather is likely weighing down on you where you are as well. Nothing like a big tumbler of iced tea (spiked with bourbon, if it's more than just your thirst that needs work) and some low down dirty blues to pass the time until sundown and beyond. Settle down with this playlist at about 8 pm and it will take you into the midnight hour when, hopefully, it will finally be cool enough to sleep.

Fragment: Swimming to the Moon with Jesus

the moon, the children, the transcendent ineffable

          frozen like a statue of Apollo

          and dead, dead, dead

          dead as the dream of a crystal city on a hill    

          dead as the consolation of order by law

          dead as founder’s intent

          dead as white dreams of America

              that you have been sold like subway tokens to a better world

          dead as a heaven that exists only in books