Parks & Casamassima & Purvis – Aug.10

Lynne Parks and Christophe Casamassima traded art. Christophe shared this poem with Lynne:

k Minus Meson’s chromosomal dregs
each gust altered swirls—gists—
new Zealand was my first post-puberty country crush
with many careful feet (ossified seed, where are you my love?
a gust of wind made his Pepsi keen
rock to sludge, sludge to lichen, lichen to bracken
dear lovers, dead lovers. Rainy season’s begun
emphatic messages of grave personal joy
let them coincide with the subway where it lifts itself into the sun
maimed in the bedroom
shirley rehearsed. “Encase me in sand, then let’s get kissy.”
looky! Girls in organdy bloomers on my lawn, my lawn
in vast sheets of legible shimmering matter
even the sodden slap slap slap of ephemera battling to get in

In response, Lynne made this assemblage, entitled “condensation”:

* * * * *

Lynne traded art with Meredith Purvis. Lynne gave Meredith this piece:

In response, Meredith wrote:

Collected

I.
The baby sleeps, quiet
for the first time in days.
The house rings with the
echo of baby’s cries.

II.
She  runs the ridges
of her thumb across the pearl’s
smooth belly.
Remembers the snap
of fine thread as he
ripped the strand
from her throat.

III.
He carries the gold
shell in his pocket
and when he feels
nervous
or afraid,
he wraps his fingers
around its curved edge
and thinks of spray paint
and his mother
and the shell-shaped spot
they left on the sand.

IV.
She sucks the tip
of her finger, the iron
taste of blood in her mouth,
welling up from a single
prick. She moved
too quickly

V.
She likes this key,
the delicates curve
of its bow; the short,
sharp blade.
She tucks it away
in a small, gray box
with the others.
Imagines doors,
unopened.