gary lundy (Western Voices 2022)

Bio: gary lundy's most recent book, each room echoes absence was published by Foothills Publishing (Spring 2018). His poems have appeared in a variety of magazines and journals including The BeZine, Vallum, Field, Ethel, Oxidant | Engine BoxSet Series 4, and Anti-Heroin Chic. gary is a retired English professor and queer living in Missoula, Montana.

 

grounded within the ellipsis separating

the boiling over point of apprehension

and that clear even if hidden meaning

well behaved they play adult tabloid

news and toy cap guns we rarely

depart the enclosure that protests even

while providing protection you doll

yourself up and we suddenly realize that

element of invisibility relied upon to get

through each day that imbalance implicit

in checking off one by one the getting

done necessitates we wonder if anyone

comports us late at night into their

dreamtime fear to enter the nightmare of

mystical pleasure that long gone sliver

of a promise a future bent to willful

flirtation impulse that cardinal impropriety

blindness to trade places with you even

if only imaginatively not unlike the

corporate fixation on profit will not

happen arrival rescheduled dilapidated 

***

 

while our unwashed body and hair

prods probes never brushed for

whatever reason you gain comfort from

the body odor forgive in the absence of

others lie sitting awake pushing that

constant sense of foreboding toward

the locked door practice monologues in

areas of free dialogic voices of all types

in a foreplay of genital freedom you

coast through the predictable and easy

to fathom popular book of a kind of

writing designed to sedate simply by

reinscribing the common unexamined

base of knowledge envy what could

never possibly have been forewarns the

shared discomfort even while

participating in its erasure of ourself we

would of course go there if there was

ever recognized as such the

predicament of failing eyesight a sudden

thought immersed in lavender

***

---

Setu, April 2022

gary lundy: Poetry (Western Voices 2021)

Bio: gary lundy's poems have appeared most recently in The Collidescope, Filling Station, Shark Reef, and Belladona Literary Magazine. each room echoes absence, was released by FootHills Publishing (March 2018). gary is a retired English professor and queer living in Missoula, Montana.

 

perhaps history won't have

 

the energy to repeat this time

perhaps our name will change

along with the failing daylight

sustenance improbabilities a

knock on what may be your

door only when opened it

wasn't visitors barred by the

virus whose names soar

overhead at all hours as if

the music that plays on repeat

heard newly original oscillates

another stolen moment

belonging to an alternative you

loosening their minds pause

in the softness becoming       

 

 

you are right of course

 

there are times bereft of

activity their legs bare

and covered in a film of fine

hair never doubt an opening

retrieves more than simple

sadness and the disease

elopes through walls doors

windows last night we

stumbled on the uneven

flooring and almost fell

breaking into that trust

worthy vision of you

drinking coffee lips aflame

in heat a trumpet races

through improvised note

patterns the future remains

open ended even when

we've fallen out of it

 

 

 

subterfuge enormous in its

 

pliable skin you are set ajar

as memories defy linear

gravity time lines their letter

falls out of the presorted

pages disquieting previous

confidences we scramble to

find a usable excuse for so

many pens a disappearance

mock driven to an intercourse

derived from a problematic

sense of self as suddenly you

return to the small house

hidden in the middle of

gravel alley in the old part of

town it's unusually balmy for

a few days inside a new year

we play an old recording of

piano music long lost to

personal appearance what is

it about some things so

common they break into new

avenues of escape take care

in listing those items going

where after the move you

ruminate upon past wrongs

to give ownership to breath

apologize when none needed

---

Western Voices 2021 :: Setu, February 2021

gary lundy (Western Voices 2020)

Exclusive: Western Voices, 2020: Edited by Scott Thomas Outlar

Bio: gary lundy's poems have appeared most recently in The BeZine, Ethel, The Collidescope, The McKinley Review, Filling Station, Shark Reef, and Anti-Heroin Chic. each room echoes absence, was released by FootHills Publishing (March 2018). gary is a retired English professor and queer living in Missoula, Montana.

to change the common ordering

seek renewed guidance through the vacuous unfamiliar

what's left when even their scent vacates

maybe that's why you refuse to change the sheets

even months later

when even the sun on their face fails to last longer

than a brief pause

prose may fill that void when nothing

is the only thing that matters

file down the intrusions into slivers of interest

they give so much of themselves that emptiness

the only felt constant

mop the damn floors stupid

clouds bask in a wonder of possible rain or snowfall

hours line up forgetting where they've been

unexplained disorder on the linear plane

plans never made even when intended

envy rattles the doors and windows

search a way out of want for what cannot become

not even within the liquid filled with dizzying dreams

effusive in their random phantom acts of disempowerment

i was once taught that every plant has its own particular personality

earlier you spent the better part of two hours conjuring their likeness

in the pain of razor wax and clothespins

nevertheless once again nothing came of it

except the blistering affirmation of pain as an affirmation

of being alive

locating that fear produced when another

notices them outside your window

innocence a compound moment conjoining

with other past participles

a night of crying as explosive events from childhood

push out present happiness

such rituals held within survival

few of us can't understand

description only serves to distance and placate

there's no escaping the fall over handlebars concussed

at that particular movement

yet in our naivete we believe sharing accompanies understanding

when their parent returns drunk

roars in stupid perceptions of being deceived

of teaching a lesson

fear rises to the forefront of the visual

pheromones suddenly engulf a moment of touch

knocking the ritualized thought out of mind

confusion may arise when too many proper nouns surround

overplay themselves

hair tangled by design advertised as non clingy

static free

membrane resolution when eyes gaze into eyes

hollow nothing explains the sudden elongated illnesses

frivolous retirement meant to escape the pull of prepositions

a feeling of blank emotion

undecipherable

children barred from careless play

or gunfire interruption putting an end to worship

the same preinstalled planning

the real problem remains hidden behind secrets

subterfuge

or simply pink eye

tear the perforated pages out and reshuffle them

understanding the singular i overused

completely

reserve a distinct disorder

they is a common enough adage to go unnoticed

whenever articulated

  

how can excess possibly be defined as success

an infant with unusual inquisitive eyes

compelled out of that deep recess of before birth

hues shaped in contrast to the drab lighting

were i eating that drink topped with whipped cream

my sweater would turn golden white

tattooed sleeves are no better at shielding from the cold air

than bare arms brittle in below zero weather

at such times pheromones collect in the drain

where the dripping faucet keeps alive its moisture

ignore their awkwardness

preoccupied by sudden electronic light flashes

the table suddenly uneven

although the cups of liquid remain stilled

immersed in the nonverbal absence

when sleep prevails while wide awake

not even so far as a disgruntled moan

with our glasses off

you are the only object that remains in focus

does this same equation work when language is only found in isolation

on the page lying open

smoke alarm tranquility

of finding a forced direction

calmly

sequential nerve endings out of sync

you remain fond of glossing over

especially difficult turns of passages

rarely reply in excrement

get on board the cost of cutting corners

astrological

when a spider

moderately sized

falls off their sweater

worn all day without incident

feather a soft playful meditation

Setu, April 2020

Western Voices: Gary Lundy

Bio:

gary lundy's poems have appeared most recently in Alexandria Quarterly, Incidia, Spider Mirror, Show Your Skin, Oxidant | Engine, and Antinarrative. His new book, each room echoes absence, was released by FootHills Publishing (March 2018). gary is a retired English Professor and queer living in Missoula, Montana.

return to a modicum of safety

where what's familiar grinds but invites. never mind how out of sorts everything still seems. clarify by boxing out what isn't at home. headache and tight stiff neck. mortality accompanies a walk downtown. hesitant snowflakes. shuffled piles of static quiet. the kiss puzzles until faced at an angle. too many events appear random. disconnected paint flakes and organic honey. itemized by no particular order. in that way keep boredom surprising. envelop the occasional touching. next to the trash bag spillage. think about calling a friend. lose interest mid number.

rare and careless classifications

to reduce confusion by inventing adjectives. conclusions awash in dirty water. and the insertable sentence meaningless. belt out a song in an uncharacteristic key. or spit blood and teeth. fragments meant to build up safety. clandestine movement in the smug midmorning light. two or more still reducible to singular. when the grouping inherent in power. glaze of eyes contracted anonymous. end with a fever and vomiting. voices overwhelming the melodic isolation. what might be accomplished were a grief permeating. ignore so much as possible possessions. permit ebb of tidal irregularities.

when what color there is is subdued

the eye takes on character through the positioning of the surrounding tattoo. brief interruption of a slowly evolving after. a wind fits and starts outside the door. one of two final exits. on a day like this excitement is at a premium. but the music is chosen out of indifference. few words thrown around. a time of ebony fingerboards. quiet signs of violent upheavals. in a pleasant suburb another piercing implosion. object to the easily reducible. mark those barriers to avoid. never end a phrase with prepositioning. allow presence its unifying justification. reconstitute tired argument to keep silent. to observe but not pass judgement.

---

Western Voices :: Setu, February 2019