Brad Gooch 8 May 2016

                       (Brad Gooch 1983)

Ninth Circle's basement,
The Beast buttoned tight,
I do this,
I do that,
     -Takes in turpentine
     -Cigarette faceoff,
     -Finds a seat,
     -A measure;
Touring Mineshaft by
Cigarette pinprick,
I watch this,
I watch that,
     -Chicken hawk cruising
     -Circle boys molting,
     -I pluck this,
     -I pluck that;
Attendant, the hands,
The ears, faced out when
Laundry, darks,
Sorted, lights,
     -Circulating blond
     -Boy drinking arts poured,
     -Vintage sipped,
     -Nouveau slurped;
Double helix with
Howard entangled,
I twist here,
He twists there,
     -Young man loaned among
     -Older collectors,
     -Unwrapped here,
     -Unwrapped there;
Suburban cushioned,
Pop up, pulled out, planned,
Won't ask, so
Don't spell out,
     -Rural eruption,
     -Back end, breech birth, 'Breathe!'
     -Long gloves slick
     -With life, loss;
Excavation of
Raw life from life dreamed,
I walk to,
I walk from,
     -Blur the face, dull the
     -Voice, bury body,
     -Pulled downward,
     -Lost under;
Cerebral laurels
Plied, thicket beckoned,
Probing skin
Deep pool side,
     -Touchstones, library
     -Thumbed illustrations,
     -Techniques to
     -Copy, own;
Rectangular, squared,
Oval, circular,
What peers out:
Who are you?
     -Left behind, with tip
     -Piled, chipped coffee cup,
     -Chair slid scrape,
     -Seat pad warmth;
Andy, Melinda,
David, and Arnaud,
I sat here,
I sat there,
     -Arthur, Henry, with
     -David, and Alice,
     -We went here,
     -We went there;
Books, of pictures, filed
Paradise Lost, found,
Fruit filled, yet
Fig leaf free,
     -Portraits shaped against
     -Circle's Bedlam cries,
     -Dreams confined
     -To four walls;
Entr'acte, borrowed set,
Roles long ago cast,
Musical
Walk-on part,
     -Dealer, freed to lock,
     -Kill lights, co-habit,
     -Block off all
     -The exits;

Notebook confessions,
Who did what to whom
Notches, belt
Unbuckled,
     -Pocketed paper,
     -Nights' recurring doubts,
     -Flattened out,
     -Deciphered;
Citrus sectioned from
Whole, boyfriend, fuck bud,
Act, ass: sweet,
Acidic,
     -Pedal pushed, swinging,
     -Pedal raised, forward,
     -Uphill, staked,
     -Downhill, braked;
Spliced plumes, one's spice laced
Pulse, one's languorous
Drawl, one's lewd
Squint, moist tongue,
     -Graphite in practiced
     -Hand, swooping, swerving,
     -Popping a
     -Wheelie stop;
Cathedral cloistered,
Self-guided chapels
Tour, tableaux
Close studied,
     -Crammed in studio,
     -Canvas on easel,
     -Hearing each
     -Portrait speak;
Sidestep depiction,
Howard straddled, shown
Lengthwise, a
Closed circuit,
     -Mark, who's Howie, nude,
     -In deck chairs, quick penned,
     -Could show sex
     -Positions;
Puzzle pieces next,
Cut out, should fit, sharp
Edged handled,
Fissured, whole,
     -He drew himself, boy
     -Faded, man formed, dark
     -Lines thickened,
     -Gaze haunting;
Lancelot leather
Bound, Thomas enshrined,
Third vault thus
Sacrificed,
     -Ground down, poured between
     -Sitter and surface,
     -A soulmate
     -Illumined;
Four, squared, porn doors wedged,
Actors' backstories 
Scrolled as told
By writer,
     -Brushed lips spilled gossip
     -Earlier, night's crawl,
     -Young poet
     -Encountered;
Fifth, pink cocoon, made
Up women, plotlines
Corseted,
Cocktails plied,
     -Mom's expectations,
     -Alice's presence,
     -Julia's deep
     -Questioning;
Sneakers descend Ninth
Circle's east wall, day
Swillers pule,
Urine pools,
     -Outsized canvas danced
     -Around in a pair
     -Of beat up,
     -White high-tops;
Eyes fix from all sides,
Mouths mid-comment, space
Crammed, supplies
Strewn, sleeves rolled,
     -Wrestler's neck slowly
     -Pivoting, bull held
     -Back in a
     -China shop,
Shots from all angles
Taken out in back,
Larry talks
A blue streak,
     -Brad unwinds from paid,
     -Prompted model to
     -City boy
     -Poet, smokes;
Dream sequence: nightfall,
Ninth Circle, Howard
Stares, Richard
Speaks, Spitz casts,
     -Iris blue background,
     -Dark helmet, slash brows,
     -Visor raised,
     -Shirt rumpled;
Headshot exploded,
Vulnerable youth
Transparent
Through the man,
     -Faces float out as
     -Muted Greek chorus,
     -Late night talk,
     -Canvas, paint.

8 May 2016