Hecate Lochia, by Hoa Nguyen. Bernadette Mayer and Alice Notley ghost through this collection, but Nguyen’s voice is her own. Some of it’s cryptic, some fascinatingly fragmentary, but never coherent in a mainstream sense. The difference may be utterly subjective.
Here’s one example of each mode:
Washington*
Washington (George) is not in
this poem powdered wig powdery
and anyway who chops down a fruit
tree (idiots)
My sense of
history lies We buy things
::::chickenwings::::::butter:::::Yesterday Dave took away
my office my boss Saturday______________
* In line 7 the sets of colons number as shown here: 4 then 6 then 5. A puzzlement.**
No Sleep
No sleep no sleep escape
Milk raining down
turning lilies whiteMena presided over moon-blood
Her offerings: young puppies
that still sucked their motherFormaldehyde in the sheets
to be wrinkle-freeApril 2006 5X the average in tornadoes
and thriving poison ivyThe sky turns green
Old Roger has died and gone to his grave
gone to his grave gone to his grave
Old roger has died and gone to his grave
Heigh ho gone to his grave“Several ice-sheets in Greenland
have doubled their rate of slide”My boy blows a plastic whistle (parrot-shaped)
stamped Made in China
The Perpetual Bird Rating: