Alex Tretbar
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[21]
We don't know what we're going to do.
This close to downtown you have to buy something.
Now that we have seen the invoice.
In order to use the bathroom.
And know what everything costs.
Can I at least talk to you first.
Like rain shadows on brutalist structures.
We look forward to finding out what happened.
But what are we to do about blues.
What lessons we may possibly learn from this.
Tunes in which the speaker.
Every lavatory dotting the expanse of empire.
Dies by suicide in the final stanza.
Is little more than a shooting gallery.
I believed I was in Nashville.
Mirror, take aim.
All the shops had music or berries.
My grief is a non-negotiable instrument.
In their names.
Which does not specify the terms of repayment.
For miles.
We don't know what we're going to do.
In installments, according to schedule.
Now that the speaker admits their speakership.
There could have been fruit. Abundant.
And we shall turn to the central nervous system.
Thereby closing the circuit.
We shall depress or stimulate it.
And know what everything costs.
UNBODIED POEM IN WHICH THE SPEAKER WANDERS INTO AN OPEN-AIR DRUG MARKET WHOSE CENTER IS AN INTERSECTION, A MARKET WHOSE DIMENSIONS HAVE BEEN ASSESSED IN PAMPHLETS COMMISSIONED BY THE GOVERNMENT, AND SYNTHESIZERS BEGIN TO SWELL IN TIME WITH THE PROPOSED AND EXECUTED MODIFICATIONS TO THE PHYSICAL ENVIRONMENT, MORE CAMERAS, CUNNING WALLS AND OPERABLE MIRRORS, INTENTIONAL DROSS IN THE ASPECT OF CONSTRUCTION SITE WASTE, IN MOST CASES AN EFFECTIVE STRATEGY WILL REQUIRE SEVERAL DIFFERENT RESPONSES, BUCCAL, NASAL, OCULAR, ORAL IN APPROACH TO THE INTERSECTION BETWEEN READER AND SPEAKER, WHICH AFFECTS LOCAL RESIDENTS’ QUALITY OF LIFE, AND IT IS UNLIKELY THAT THE MARKET CAN BE COMPLETELY ERADICATED, BUYERS AND SELLERS CAN TOO EASILY LOCATE ONE ANOTHER, AND WHAT IS REALLY NEEDED IS A MEANS OF PREVENTING THAT CO-LOCATION PULMONARILY, SUBLINGUALLY, TRANSDERMALLY, A POEM’S EFFICACY CAN BE IMPACTED SIGNIFICANTLY BY THE WAY IN WHICH IT IS DELIVERED, AND IN LIGHT OF THIS KNOWLEDGE THE SPEAKER HAS CHOSEN TO OCCUPY THE ROAD BENEATH THE STOPLIGHT, ORACULAR IN APPROACH, SYNTHESIZERS SWELL THERE WITH SUPPORT FROM PHANTOM POWER, VEHICLES OBEY THE ALTERED FLOW OF TRAFFIC, NANOPARTICLES, LIPOSOMES, AND MICROSPHERES, IT IS UNLIKELY THAT THE BODY CAN BE COMPLETELY ERADICATED
[29]
But who hasn't.
Made the biggest mistake of their life.
Perturbed the carbon cycle.
Am I right.
Help, exclamation point.
I am going to talk about something serious.
Please schedule the email for 6 a.m.
Make my bed in Portland cement.
How many minutes have you spent.
The click track was mistaken.
In the geographical centers of intersections.
For a member of the order Anura.
As of the TSA, which has incorporated.
No clichés are present.
Unpredictable security measures.
Nor syntax nor logic.
Both seen and unseen.
As of open-air drug markets.
To accomplish its mission.
In city centers where commerce.
Hail, exclamation point.
And entertainment.
Can easily locate each other.
And shopping.
Modifies the physical environment.
And political power are concentrated.
But who hasn't.
Enabled Bluetooth from time to time.
And wandered into the open air.
With hazard lights for eyes.
UNBODIED POEM IN WHICH THE SPEAKER COMPOSES AN UNTITLED POEM INFORMED BY BUT RARELY IN DIRECT REFERENCE TO THE TIME THEY SPENT IN A CLOSED-AIR PRISON, HOW EVERYTHING WAS ACRONYMED AND CAPITALIZED, FIRST NAMES BULLIED AND CROWDED OUT BY LASTS, AND THERE WAS ONLY ONE STYLE OF SUNGLASS FOR SALE AT THE CANTEEN, “BIKER SUNGLASSES,” AND EVERYONE BOUGHT AND WORE THEM IN POIGNANT ACCORDANCE WITH THE UNCONSCIOUS CONSTRUCTION OF A SELF-OBSERVING PANOPTICON, THIS IS UNUSUAL WRITING, IT WORKS LIKE THIS, THE GUARDS LAGGED OUT DURING THE VIRUS, DURING THE 23.5-HOUR-PER-DAY SILENCE, AND THERE WERE PROBLEMS LOADING OUR AVATARS, PROBLEMS SO GRAVE THAT THERAPY WAS MANDATED, SCHEDULED THREE YEARS OUT, AND A SUBTLE BODY OF DISCOURSE TRAILED BEHIND THEM, THE SPEAKER, AS THEY PURSUED A POETICS WHOSE DIMENSIONS HAVE BEEN ASSESSED IN PAMPHLETS COMMISSIONED BY THE GOVERNMENT
Biographical Statement
Alex Tretbar is the author of the chapbook Kansas City Gothic (Broken Sleep, 2025). As a Writers for Readers Fellow with the Kansas City Public Library, he teaches free writing classes to the community. His poems and essays appear or are forthcoming in APARTMENT, The Cincinnati Review, Iterant, Kenyon Review, Narrative, Protean, The Rumpus, The Threepenny Review, and elsewhere.