HEIKKI HUOTARI

Body English 2

The occasional unconscionable thought
precipitates a change of venue. It's mellifluous, but
to what end, this déjà vu? There is a time and place
for every follow-through but not one follow-
through is in its time and place. Then, in the house
of mirror neurons, introspections are reflected to
hilarious effect: an infinite regress. I will not let a
vow go out unbroken. If to air three grievances is
human what's divine?


Pas De Deux

It's multimodal distribution day and every
optimum is relative and perchance false. Do not ask
at what lightning strike the sample means amass. I
am the consciousness you settled for, remember?
Two of twenty spines align if you can find them.
Your periphery is painted. Where the earth would
have you stand is flat. As gravity has better things
to do so on the moon you lose a shoe. The rumor
will withdraw the map more accurately than the
war. So what is water if it's water not to walk on?

HEIKKI HUOTARI attended a one-room school and spent summers on a forest-fire lookout tower in a past century. He is a retired math professor and has won two poetry chapbook prizes and published three collections, the most recent being The Dog's Meow, Uncollected Press, 2019.