THE LOWERING OF EARS
Thirty thousand locks, like colonies of commas.
All those pockets and roomy pauses,
where our words refuse to fit.
Every question is as boundless as a shark-eye.
Each parenthesis a fishhook—
the worm, your furrowed brow.
I ask trivial things about the art scene in Calgary.
Avoiding her name like nettles, you concede:
Performing in snow and bleary brownstones.
Each description is dipped in duplicity.
Curls still swirl as swallows to the ground,
making islands for the dust mites.
Discarded DNA is raising Avalon.
We are constant barbers, mowing down reminders.
Sweeping away our growing pains.
Author’s Bio
Zach Pearl is an American-born, Toronto-based writer, curator and educator with a critical focus on the future of art, science, and technology. He is also Co-Founder and Art Director of KAPSULA, a digital publication for experimental arts writing. These are his first published poems in sixteen years.