by Suzán Jiván
for The Poets on WXPN's
" Live at the Writers House "
I
An affront to sovereignty
under the provinces
of the Pentagon
II
As drones buzz over the little-known
in unnoticed
unarmed and unmanned aircrafts
III
Foreshadowing examples
of handfuls
of the last man standing
IV
Beneath
the rumbling rafters
of a whistling psychopath...
by Suzán Jiván
for Turtleneck Press
The near death
of the irreplaceable
having escaped
being tabulated
as slaves made
from bottle tops
under the moniker
of folk art
with dry brush markings
of a hermit in a hut
made from the fusty
ink and brush
of the unlucky
secreted away
atop a corrugated plane
like highly attenuated play
in illusory paper booties over shoes...
by Suzán Jiván
for The Poets @ The Chapterhouse
Man minds
his sleeping
grandchild
after midnight
while dreaming
of pack ice
shrinking
like retreating
white-winged
endangered
species
forced to breed
in captivity
in quarantine
hitchhiking
on nursery trees
stored in igloos
made of concrete
covered by stone-eating
microbes blighted
by fungi and lichens
along land-locked highways
less and less reliable
at different times
with heavy and light rains
falling at varying places
Fractured into factions of attack
unmarked and unmapped
in a monotony of gravel
parsed by tangents
on a sliding scale
nudged here and there
without looking back
at sniffing animals
wearing
artifice as armor
while stabbing
fingers skyward
like bona fide strivings
of rapt exercise
with passive statuettes
in prickly defense
of morbidity
with pivotal trophies
proudly pointing out
the rapture of song and dance
with a contrarian maverick
from the prevailing underclass
complete with gross misunderstandings
praised within an idyllic cast...
Poetry Credit: Suzán Jiván
Photo Credit: Unknown
A calm arm-twister
relinquishing savagery
by speaking out with civility
after singling out lagging
individual action
inside benign hideouts
Becoming cut and dried
chameleon-like
stealing by
in noiseless flight
Ready to strike
across blurring lines
of non-violence
and deceitful hype...
by Suzán Jiván
for Anne-Adele Wight
Slightly stuffy but somewhat humble
from the long-term fussing
of an absurdist public
in unusual numbers
culminating
in numerous dumpsters
as colorful sculptures
between finger and thumb
Becoming wonderfully messy
like an obsessive blessing
concentrating
on the chockablock avant-garde
as slightly bucolic tumultuous objects
in ponderous chartreuse and olive...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
I
Almost
halo-like
escaping
unscathed
by standing
in the face
of spectators
like sword makers
on a background plane
II
Illusionistically portrayed
and mathematically based
in heightened sensations
of unshakable faith
and irrepressible strength
III
Garnering the same fate
as " The Annunciation "
in a bedchamber
twice as high
as it is wide
like a fore-
shortened
Christ...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
A new light
to the wider
urbanized
sprawling
across
lifetimes
of mile-
markers
like prickly
matriarchs
emblazoned
by bush-
whackers
retreating
from the urban
elite
closest
to the city
freely or cheaply
as multi-tiers
blanketing
the region
with de-
bunkings
of the myth
of one
as too
vulnerable...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
Lingering over achy phrases
as sophisticated domains
gone crazy
sounding tacky
like tasteless reality
sung ruefully
as husky and bluesy
flotsamy and blubbery
with satirical fragility
and random casualties
grotesquely hackneyed
as wannabes
with prominent scars
on ornamented bodies
of found objects
like epoxied hierarchies
of possibility at least initially
as anomalies involving
bleaching and teasing
coexisting arguably
as wiry wigs of irony...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
A wealthy backer
aggressively attacking
the eeewww factor
captured as chapters
of revulsion in matters
as shouting matches
for ick factors
in full houses
of haphazardly
quasi-autobiographical
smackings of animality
graphically portrayed
with an assassin's twang
while flooding the stage
with gross displays
unashamedly
followed by elation
in a parlor game
of disgusting charades...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
With tingling pleasure
unretrenched
as tellingly celestial
with an unbridled sense
in extremis
bound together
in intrepid
text-free spreads
with chapter headings
of incessant assuredness
in indelible
complexities of multi-
directional reflections
ecstatically
brandished as an exacting
scrapbook
of poetic couples
squiggling in the clinch...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
Unpatterned black
bare moist nostrils
heavy boss
svelte forehead
erectile crest
black garters
upper legs
spotted flanks
hind legs
undulate
elongate
punctuate
full length
mouth agape
unrestrained
noisemaking
nearly naked
floodplain...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
Between finger and thumb
dun-colored sculptures
pleasantly jumbled
All of a sudden
posthumously loved
in burdensome tumult
as a watercolor study
of supplicants
sensibly enough
Like newcomers
entirely in the nude
in casts that include
idiosyncratic humor
and pharmaceutical cures
as tear-jerkers of absurdity
seeping outward
overpoweringly...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
Slow moving mostly
nocturnal blending in perfectly
with a good supply of prey
in between parted front legs
in a genus capable of decay
as a papery egg case
in a wooden chamber
with communally chewed food
Unsuitable for wingless forms
feeding on fungi, algae and lichens
while being anchored by nymphal skin
and an exoskeleton
with abdominal segments
split down the back
into the thorax
remaining attached
to visible wing pads
as a praying mantid...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
A
wel-
ter
of
may-
hem
build-
ing
mo-
men-
tum
from a glower to a pout
hands
down
spell-
bound
under-
ground
like
lilac
walls
and
red
floors
in
on-
sloughts
of
just
"be-
cause"
Living
by
wits
in
flash-
lighted
pictures
and
the
like
un-
dis-
guised
and
angered
by
un-
can-
ny
eyes
in
pur-
su-
ance
of
man-
kind
like
tough
guys
hobbled
by
black
and
white
at
first
light
as
memories
of ice
at
first
sight...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
Busy
amping up
with flashbacks
in a strange land
foreshadowed
by glamorous
attractions
of alchemy
as admiring
eye blinks
while hic-
cupping
blindly
woe-
fully
recognized
sniffing
and pinching
the pre-
dictably
grisly
in the midst
of whimsy
above
the groove
while digging
in decisively
like a two-timing
velvety quiet
of clear delight
as youthful
reminders
becoming
hard-wired
like fictionalized
grim statistics
in a predictable
grid of silhouetted
brilliance intrinsically
dimmed by double-
crossed victims
as inconsistent
sentimentalists...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
I
A passel of honors
on the long list
of the glorification
of war as a short story
filled with morphine hits...
II
Changing hands
in an armistice
of the hellishly
compelling
brownish reds...
III
Intimately connected
with the lethal letters
of the cleverly senseless
giving up their dead...
IV
Learned lessons
crammed into a head
immersing itself
in revenge at the multiplex...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
The barren ex-
panse
of a hilly waste-
land
with gruesome
flash-
backs of ragtag
top
brass swooping
over
the area
frighteningly
baby
faced shell-
shocked
and raving...
Battered blatantly
at strategic locations
of futile engagements
in a foreign language
with machination...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
The perception
of inevitability
permeated
by the incapable
decimated
by hard labor
bound for the stage
in an adaptation
of, " Hairspray "
with the ease
and imagination
of a bequeathed
beauty queen
in a nation
weary of the weird
being widely
criticized
as glittery and incisive
in capering dance
and brass fanfares
with advanced ticket sales
for the jaggedly handsome
and the raggedly romantic
as slicked-back shaggy
shaping the fragile
played dazzlingly
culminating
with a standing
ovation in harmonic
celebration...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
Forward-hooked
horn calf born in highlands
exclusive harems distinctive patterns
as scarce aggregates of bachelor males curving backward
in a darkening arc of miombo
short bodied knock-kneed
scraggly next to the camel
largely adapted as an extract
from plants like tussock grass
built rather small dewlap at jaw
equally long insubordinate
S-shaped horns forequarters
loping along migratory ridged horns
U-form offspring born waterless
wards sizable hoards cow-like horns
knobby boss somewhat longer
returning to the taller spiral horned
dorsal borders spotted torsos
legs brawny thornbush
erect crest flexing chevron X...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
Flight
feathers black
but white
under primaries
brown juveniles
along shorelines
around
a yellow eye
large carcasses
tiny larvae
big cavities
hatching
through Sahara
waiting for scraps
shaggy ruff dusky pink
Bone-eating revealing
underwings raucous screams
nest linings mammalian
skin and hair canting
side-to-side feeding on hares
and dik-diks monitor lizards
drinking preening inconspicuously
hidden heavy bellies
sub-desert stick nests at rest
Wing edges red defenses
graceful descents shallow nests
semi-desert watershed
empty steppes snatched nestlings
livestock pens compulsive theft
rivers edge long crests
seizing eye rings dung beetles...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
Haunting the outer beaches
as most migrants of the interior
short thick bills in winter
mournful whistle dropping in the middle
long distance skimmer wing tips
Rich whistle golden-plover
snowy piping killdeer
broken wing
flopping
Mostly orange
white collar
field mark
obvious
underparts
mobbed
dark tipped
whistle
clear "wheeep"
wave-
washed rocks
harsh
sharp foreparts
hard "kwip"
stout bill
over winter
Teetering bobbing
uncommonly solitary
barred underparts
muddy pond bush top
Stodgy bulky body
marbled flocks of godwits
fairly common on one spot
whistles of wandering
on and on
whinnying trilling
early in winter
darkening still...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
Like an after-
thought
as strength
by de-
fault
varying
enormously
back and forth
as eyes crossing
into relent-
less formulas
out of proportion
on hand
as free-
lance petal
patterns that vanish
clearly
scattered off campus
by a pathological draft...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
Reedbuck
offspring
horns
appear
venting
whistling
curving
tips
rump
ring
buttocks
muzzle
submissive
adult
polygynous
sometimes
hundreds
stilettos
rising
over
eyes
sloping
higher
X-shaped
facial
blaze...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
Madcap and romantic
bleary-eyed and woozy
in a smarmy drama
as simply, " Psst "
on a partial list
of news and nonsense
seen as solipsistic oddities
of a preposterous hierarchy
with inconspicuous turned-up tusks
for digging up nutritious culms
in abundance as roots and bulbs
plowed up in a shallow scrape
on a floodplain of unpatterned gray
along a glossy glade after mating...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
Even more
hauntingly
formidable
as sapphire crystal
re-imagined as amethyst
in a pyramidal prism
of vitreous solvents of silica
simulating hydrologic cycles
of vital electrolytes
in between Isles
correspondingly re-aligned
as a crystalline skyline
in hard type openly mined...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
Giant damselfly fore-and-hind
wings in flight
plucking spiders large eyes
nymphs climb
claspers on abdomen
still grasping
stagnant native lands
club tailed...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
Spit and polish
lavishly stocked
in an avante
garde salon
of the remarkable
holding out for promise
presciently conjured
like the bygone
preoccupied
at the same time
identical in exile
with a quadruple bow
and jabot among the oldest
ingeniously folded
in alternating rows
while assuming
a striking pose
in a shaggy coat
grizzled gray
and tapering
at the base
speckled red
becoming
widespread
standing erect
with a broad head
conspicuously moist
fisted claws
swooping
in a noisy swarm...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
Harboring ponderous phenomenons
as nuanced nods to astonishment
amorously stitched into jazzy riffs
with pinging filaments...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
Not known
for under-
statement
in a slimmer
midcentury
after offering
a peak
at a defyingly
freaky
femme fatale
while toeing
the line
despite
streamlining
in lightweight
makeup
"Beauty
is pain"
taken away
in rotation
as the lipstick
of the day
with blotting
papers
and lip balm
from a robot
in flip-flops
Saying, "No"
to dark spots
thrown
into the wash
after a party
of the majority
then on to eyedrops
and a brightening wand...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
Powerfully built
distinctly ringed
nearly spotless
with springing
and climbing
ability
uniformly tawny
hindquarters
nocturnal forage
fox-like proportions...
by Suzán Jiván
for Lester Mobley
Roots and tubers
with tender shoots
dependent on lagoons
and a small white goose
singing, " Coor-a-loo coor-a-loo "
while facing intruders
in courtship groups
with eclipsing plumage...
