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167 · Oct 2022
The acceleration
Norman Crane Oct 2022
The acceleration tastes of battered citrus,
The speed, of neon wine,
The rain writes dashes horizontal,
Across the landscape of the coastline,
The car-machine we're in's within us,
Both it and we: in time,
Entropy will soon make landfall,
And speeding speeding we shall die.
167 · Aug 2020
Mother make me low
Norman Crane Aug 2020
Mother make me low
for only during times of sadness
do we know
the warning signs of madness

Father make me scream
for it is only subsequent to rage
we dream
always of a better age

Mirror make me die
for it is solely when we hate
we know the lie:
we can escape our fate
160 · Oct 2021
i ironed mi shirt
Norman Crane Oct 2021
i ironed mi shirt
wanted to straighten out
mi life
           lies crumpled on the floor
mi life
           is nothing more
than a pile,
           creased       sore         linen,
gittin mi **** together
this year and youre in
it  too
                      this pile of me n iou.
154 · Oct 2021
The Boxer
Norman Crane Oct 2021
—the bell!

/ end of the 6th round /

He staggered to his corner, collapsed on his stool.

Enswell. Water.

"******* ain't tirin'."

Cornerman: "He will. All men tire."

He got   off the stool,
ate a left,
and countered:
knocking the *******'s skin off,
revealing: not bone:

metal.
151 · Oct 2021
Tree branch reflections
Norman Crane Oct 2021
tree branch reflections
on the windshield
spread like cracks in glass
      the landscape rushes past
we feel
our imperfections
spread like cracking glass
      on faces that we know
flicker:in the headlit glow
to where it is we go
when ourselves we no longer know

strangers in a car
speeding somewhere in the dark
150 · Sep 2021
Follow your dreams
Norman Crane Sep 2021
follow your dreams
     to where?
to the land of make-believe
     how long should i stay there?
forever, my friend
think positively, and you can
     make sleep the end?
indeed, and—
     dreaming, i can live anything!
yes, but:   we'll call it death then.
147 · Sep 2021
Malpleasance
Norman Crane Sep 2021
we are [living in] a stimulation,
floating bubbles dripping pleasure,
inflated by self-adoration,
pop—
ping: keyword:
excess   leisure
Norman Crane Sep 2021
It was a rainy day when I heard,
"It was a sunny day when I saw
[ed her in half],
said the magician:
"It was a cloudy day when I felt
[sawed in half],
she said,
only half believing what I was hearing
through the pouring rain,
sensing,
for the first time,
the world was not OK.
136 · Oct 2021
Theosophy
Norman Crane Oct 2021
lightning flashes
blue veins, illuminated sky
seeing the world as it is
organic, epidermis of the mind's eye
thunder is a muscle
twitching as the demiurge dies
pellucid skin—
I—
revealing heaven's bones—
know—
the universe is empty
we are on our own
130 · Sep 2021
Trains speeding by
Norman Crane Sep 2021
trains speeding by
the city immense and i
waiting for you
at the grand central station
waiting for you
in plaintive introspection
waiting for
my life to arrive
at the grand central station
trains speeding by
trains speeding by
128 · Sep 2021
Headspace
Norman Crane Sep 2021
my face is hollow
grated like jail, rusted and
overgrown with vines
blooming bloodflowers which burst
dripping endlessly inward
126 · May 2021
Love Dispersing
Norman Crane May 2021
this morning
as i collect the thoughts
we scattered late last night,
i wonder, or perhaps i start to doubt:
why do we always fight?
when did our light—
go out.

the house sits quiet as you sleep,
these days, we're silent even when we shout,
but we had times
of such uncommon clarity—

i weep,
upward following the sweep
of steam rising from my cup of tea,
our love dispersing
122 · Sep 2021
Tonight the tide comes in
Norman Crane Sep 2021
tonight the tide comes in
fully. tomorrow
we'll need glass bottom boats
to see new york city.
the flood lights
the deluge
reflecting the moon,
pulling the water over us
like a blanket. soon
our lungs will become pumps,
recovering—
forever—
the statue of liberty.
118 · Sep 2021
Decay is a song
Norman Crane Sep 2021
decay is a song
     of varicoloured leaves
sung in winter's tongue
     to summer as she grieves
117 · Aug 2021
Fall
Norman Crane Aug 2021
the lure of success
glitters under the spotlight,
you step—
                    trap door:
                                       death.
116 · Sep 2021
Like bubbles rising
Norman Crane Sep 2021
like bubbles
rising through water
gas
escaping,   oneafteranother
up, lighter than—
we are
empty  as  canned laughter
upwardly  mobile,
hope-filled
rising till realising, we  are:
like bubbles rising
in a (corked)  water (bottle)
world
115 · May 2021
Love Cap
Norman Crane May 2021
once under a rainy day
we met, huddling beneath the cover
of a mushroom to keep dry,
now the sun has long since chased the clouds away,
yet here we stay,
together: i still love her,
and shall until the fungus of our love
is dry
114 · May 2021
Wageheads
Norman Crane May 2021
childhood ends not with a celebration
but by the sound of an alarm clock,
with clothes laid out for you
not by your mother on your bed but on the sidewalk
by the governor / engines idling at red lights,
they never change, we never doubt,
we've been dying here for years,
isn't it strange that nobody ever gets out?
we remain in obedient slow pursuit,
we zombies of the morning commute,
we wageheads, we employable undead,
we were people once,
we listened to what the grown-ups said
113 · Sep 2020
Silver Splinters
Norman Crane Sep 2020
Now I extract with tweezers from my flesh
the silver splinters of our common past,
unoxidized sharp memories still fresh,
which left would fester like a question asked
but never answered. Isn't it absurd
how we wound each other with joyous shards
of love's black shrapnel: how passion burns,
yet in remembering turns to gangrene ash?
111 · May 2021
c-ya_
Norman Crane May 2021
72 floors up
through sheets of pristine glass, cold
as cut from glacier,
the neon city lights are fire,
burning a receding horizon to ash,
swirling snow static,
legs dangling, lips draped with bubblegum,
fingertips depressing keys,
bit by bit arriving at the erasure
of the virtual,
a corporation of thieves.
she executes; post-execution
she breathes.
108 · May 2021
Dreamer
Norman Crane May 2021
see me beneath the tree
slumbering peacefully
let me be let me be
blue sky inkwell of time
within i dip my quill
life is lines life is lines
lines is all it shall be
written deceitfully
set me free set me free
107 · Jun 2021
Things Pass
Norman Crane Jun 2021
things pass
in and out of life they pass
do not grasp them
lest in their passing you too shall pass
away from you
becoming a thing also
106 · Jul 2021
Butcherglass
Norman Crane Jul 2021
buzzing flies / warm blood
carcass of a slain cow through
abattoir windows
Norman Crane May 2021
it is difficult to remember now,
through the kaleidoscope nightmare of the river,
endlessly flowing,
endlessly flowing,
but we lived once much as you,
we'd love hope and family,
and it ended just as it will end one day for you,
in dispersion of the light and melting of the cosmic consciousness,
drip drip drip from space into your mind,
drip drip drip,

it was the middle of the night,
and the dog started barking so i took him to the yard,
the wife said,
it was dark and the stars shone like pin ****** through black velvet,
the dog said,
he was uneasy and barked at the night sky,
which dispersed like startled ravens,
and the light from all the stars became sound,
each a string plucked,
vibrating,
the sound pleased me and i attuned the ear,
as all around windows lit up bright rectangles,
and people came outside onto grass and concrete,
and stared up at the singing sky,
the dog had fallen on its side,
tongue out eyes twitching,
but the starsong prevailed and i knew the dog had understood,
and that i too would understand,
it is inevitable,
the wife said,
i love you and i love you too,
i said,

i was fear,
the stars bloomed into lightflowers,
and the bees awoke,
and ascended to drink their luminous nectar,
before bursting as fireworks,
in dispersion remaining etched upon the sky like scatter without time,
multiplying i reminisced childhood,
dust caught in attic sunlight,
each scatter birthing stars whose brightness equaled the original,
and in their accumulation night became bright as day,
i reminisced death,
brighter than,
colours so vivid the mind pained,
and starsong became starscream and the colours leeched away,
to whiteness,
to nothingness,
and we covered our eyes as its unbearable intensity melted all before us,
including us,
and we were blind,
and i felt myself pouring out my sockets,
i loved my wife and she me,
but we were no more,

in blindness i coagulated,
the world of shapes was finished and all persisting was consciousness and nightmare,
of loss,
of ending,
of the forever and the nevermore,
in concentration i perceived my consciousness,
suspended within melted eyes,
trickling through blades of disappearing grass,
a single fear,
meeting other consciousnesses,
human and non,
viscous as dreadhoney,
and within each another fear,
and in their union i became from one to many nightmares,
immediately and at once,

the trickle sped as the grass was not,
and the reality flats declined,
down we ran,
an accumulation of nightmares,
liquid eyes beyond the bodypast crying fears of individual terror experienced in common,
down toward the river.

and we were in,

like a single mind burning in universal agony,

riverchurch of the ******,

guided currently by the high priests of nothingness but experience,

overload of knowing,

from swerve of shore to bend of bay,

we flow,

awaiting you /

for you to flow as us
103 · May 2021
Syllables
Norman Crane May 2021
The phone rings.
I answer.
"How are things?"
"I've cancer."

"God, mom, I—"
"It's OK."
"Will you die?"
"Soon, they say."

I'm silent.
My words fail.
Cigarette:
in- / exhale.

"So take care."
(My voice shakes.)
"Hang in there."
(My heart breaks.)

I'm silent.
My words fail.
Cigarette:
in- / exhale.
102 · May 2021
IO
Norman Crane May 2021
IO
we are made of railroads
atoms upon tracks
traveling predetermined routes
arriving at predictable acts
we are machines of computation
numbers within mass
solving existential equations
about leaping off the overpass
102 · Sep 2021
g
Norman Crane Sep 2021
g
gravity is—
but what does it, matter?
100 · May 2021
May
Norman Crane May 2021
May
the warm west wind blows
frost-bitten spring leaves away
white clouds replace grey
98 · Sep 2021
John Ford
Norman Crane Sep 2021
woodland / hissing stream,
it's cold / horses exhale steam,
you
slumber underdawn,
you stir—the sun—the rattle of spurs:
once upon the land was pure
once upon the land was pure
98 · Jun 2021
Was
Norman Crane Jun 2021
Was
our marriage was
a double blind study of love
hypothesis disproved for
neither of us
can see the other any more.
95 · May 2021
hum-drum
Norman Crane May 2021
of course it's dense;
poetry is self-defence
against common sense.
94 · May 2021
Hibernal
Norman Crane May 2021
when in winter winter clouds pour water
on the street leading your house unto mine
water freezes cars become an altar
streetlights light the hoods hoods reflect the shrine
to us together in this cold cold world
hand in hand in gloves, a boy and his girl
92 · Sep 2021
Techtonic
Norman Crane Sep 2021
my house spews upwards
in a flat anti-neighbourhood of
disconnected—
the screen blinks, blank;
but the active round will follow
fatebang:
we are, each, a house
grown up/ward,
alone and easily swayed
(alone, uneasily swaying,
tech support
              cannot prevent our fall.)
91 · May 2021
Perchance
Norman Crane May 2021
When I sleep,
I am awake,
As I wake,
I was asleep,
Wakefulness
is merely seeping,
Of our darkly,
Deepest sleeping.
87 · Sep 2021
Sunflowers
Norman Crane Sep 2021
sunflowers follow
the sun; to whom will they turn
once their sun has gone?
86 · Sep 2021
If I were a house
Norman Crane Sep 2021
[If I were a house, I am not a house / No more.] am I in order (like bricks being a wall) but disordered, like a pile (of bricks after the fall) / All whom I'd within me are already passed//past my vacant chaos grows now [only g( )***: blades of broken wi( )dows, which sadly did not last.]
81 · May 2021
Rhythms
Norman Crane May 2021
winter contains spring
new warmth cradled by ancient wings
i am watching the surf
go out, come in
considering rebirth
all things which i have been
i was dead
but now i am living
each winter contains a spring
an energy coiled within
causing the world to spin
causing the world to spin
Norman Crane Sep 2021
sleeping scars the restless mind,
something the psychologist
said: nightmare's claws carve ******-
septic lines
across the innards of the head,
which drip,
fear, loathing and strychnine
into your waking world
as you awake in bed something
the psychologist said
73 · Aug 2020
Happiness

— The End —