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The Eleventh hour

By 

Tim Kahl

Tandem ships sail to the regrettable cliff of breasts

whose deep clefts proceed to the chalk of the clit

ashes on the delta lift above the crystals of voice

never speaking never speaking to the noise of the blades

their trills a retort to the imaginary friends of Rameau

existing in a trickle of blissful water downslope

where the bowls of Christ are stuffed with mean old fat

that reasserts the need for nettle and copper coin in religion

Dominé Dominé then a late night surge from the Splenda

abuelas running through the sullen herd of the lawn sprinklers

red cellophane roses bud on a barbed wire fence

fireflies with prices on them trust the jealous dune climbers

but somebody kidnapped the Spongebob piñata at the flea market

after the zeitgeist refused to be born in the dark home of los muertos

rain falls, the garden whispers, pollen is shaped from maize kisses

grows courage in mother's daughters rolling warm rotis out of habit

their pride clarified by the sounds of words made on Sundays

when cattail tangles mingle with knotted black hair

hands with olives in them are dipped in milk and looked at

under the microscope in the eleventh hour of dessert

Quiz question:

What else do maize kisses shape besides pollen?

The high colonic

The high colonic

liquidambar spinyballs

liquidambar spinyballs

methylation of the SRY gene

methylation of the SRY gene

squirrel giblets

squirrel giblets

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Issue 21

published 

September 22, 2017

Tim Kahl [http://www.timkahl.com] is the author of Possessing Yourself (CW Books, 2009), The Century of Travel (CW Books, 2012) and The String of Islands (Dink, 2015). His work has been published in Prairie Schooner, Drunken Boat, Mad Hatters' Review, Indiana Review, Metazen, Ninth Letter, Sein und Werden, Notre Dame Review, The Really System, Konundrum Engine Literary Magazine, The Journal, The Volta, Parthenon West Review, Caliban and many other journals in the U.S. He is also editor of Clade Song [http://www.cladesong.com]. He is the vice president and events coordinator of The Sacramento Poetry Center. He also has a public installation in Sacramento {In Scarcity We Bare The Teeth}. He plays flutes, guitars, ukuleles, charangos and cavaquinhos. He currently teaches at California State University, Sacramento, where he sings lieder while walking on campus between classes.

i dont feel like fininishing this website right now and i am sorry

As I said, it was

poorly phrased and incorrect

for me to say that.

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Issue 21

This writing was originally published in Opium Magazine, and is not listed in the Lit.cat archives.
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