Jack Bachmann

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Phototransduction

               through Frank O'Hara

From a position of excess,
                    excess of excessive
                                of a small room
space a small stack spilling into
a pile                       enough
for loss of exigence;

            I was staring at the white wall
            after staring at the sun

            all blue, dear afterimage,

            in the sun, I blinked
            and the blackbird’s wings went
            all blue, whole body guising,
           
            disappeared, soon blinking,
            blinking,
                                 (cones and rods re-
            adjusting) the complex
            opposite of blue, unfading,

overspilling “near the grave of love

           no more dying”

Going on how to name it

That shadow’s cast from
somewhere: little wavering,
little overlapping, little depth
in little layers; nothing
stochastic, on the doubles
and triples blink long for an
after image which hangs
around to add to it;
dispersion on the slick surface
faceted tension along the
double crested fasciations.
Get with it and see both faces.

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Jack Bachmann lives and writes in Boise, Idaho. His work has appeared in Antiphony, ÖMËGÄ, and Tagvverk among other places, including two chapbooks from Ghost City Press, dayglo and Soft Static Crushes.

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