One Poem
from Mountainscapes
[squander nightfall abandoned...]
squander nightfall abandoned to snow whirl
reversing grave leveled city, vista cynic nominates near trim
drone observed position, picking out circling star light
refused, left the gaps to air in silences, routine turn flotilla
gift of forgetting each immediate sensation
as caustic notes, chemical fields clamber again up rough vocab:
unify or organize drawing back to the ascent, animal body rote
walk down street routine at quote dawn, trained on reference
not giving enough: planar basis for what it would mean to accumulate or forget
left to the eroding wash, current flows down this street in crisis,
formed without vision, thought pacing that spans rests,
trilogy of dying, rapt to curtain mind
while in these nearness gaps fruit unexplained phenomena,
docile thighs, delight delimits aging surface, root tensions
surface spoiled in rippling figments of attention
consequent militancy glares not historic from that gaze of skull’s capacity
nightmare thought of the reserved bullet, poems pending placid
rippled disturbed back in time of collapsible torment, gap in thought
defers pending atrocity, each with what gives own grave diggers
perception caught light between blades of grass, between scorched concrete
schema spying near desolate, that murmur in my activity and struggle
borne as intensity left at depth, gardens of humor
running tangent, turned plaintive call to neoprene veer
sharpening waste excreted poet solvent, salivating recession
dingy, diminutive, debited: nothing that continues over the length of wave,
of pulse, acrid and distant fumes, dissipating, searching from the middle
flesh and verb, not about food, to be food,
need void resource blanked out moment of life,
ground zero consuming bloom
read for outside, then sectioned, urged to extend
shipping networks, corridors, embargoes equal blockades
warfare via limits to calories, weapons of pure extractive desires
referencing empire so need to draw it out,
a long sequence: arterial sentence, vein glib depth oxygenate
spent a few days home exhausted from work, not separated
transport and my labor and this accumulation
fed and bloodless, though pulse affirms outer realms of mind
not anarchy, crows over buildings,
freighter into hurricane to shove off time, recording
transcript repeats “noise”, no light to last moments
rendered as sound, grieving image
rapid eye movement: stall this pace / pulse
normal remembering death’s vast blank, encouraging one
to be acquainted with darkness, parasympathetic system responding
to the dark, pulse slows in flickering dots
not there bodies sparking not image but the complete and total
center overwhelm
nothing nothing as near to a new rapturous aural open
agony line-by-line left breathing open palm to coax wavy surface
leading means accumulated plink plink of thought surface under
the bubbles, charge running along rare earth metals, I attempt
to visualize route of extraction, invisible circuits surging across ocean
value is in speed, warped steel short fracture driving
two songs against each other, into the mistake that is this velocity
little space for breath, for understanding edge, writ limit
divulging spelled divot, wanting not to follow dot dot lines
left turn, coast view rotates around me, memory meaningful
food in course of this, or food prices, stuffed classes starve themselves
as body control, asymptotic arc, things they feel are theirs
possessed by calamities they ensue, raging at them each fracture
they press there with us in the pulse we wield
in space line noise drip follows instead clarity prosaic mistake
imprison mantle, draping paths round road cord surge
protecting identify pleased within communal circle, clasp struggle
near ideas stop and start, FPS feed, flickering image as read
belief bread give flicker hand gesture, crossing century
sorry for mind map, anger molecular fuse, wind and pavement
weather ambient engine drone, collapsing angles of sight and sound
waiting at the harbor, unceasing food obligations merits supply
not that I caught freeze or my labor, urgent call
militant dispersal obedient, open Joan of Arc,
germ of agriculture
winter clear beats dear message to me plopped aura
where you read gummed and situation
halt stigma placid undercurrent
you take active as greed form
super majority warm broth
left to memory, intonation blocks extending era future fusion
heart of if blank stand-in leverage gales burst stationary
render or accumulate or gather in the inner shadow of pulse
of repeating the station and street of devastation, depopulated
garner grim calculated walk pace, stopped before glowing
stationary explication, dulled motivation,
sprung practice after thought
you build opal resource gathering impart
left of impact site, sorry for the trash that lingers
direct, pulling in the ask, the scattered and uncomfortable
edge of such awareness, more than forward
open floral mind given those you bring and belong
clarity’s mistake, dense awareness entering an open space
between buildings, register caution and watch for reflections in windows
quote “civilizing mission” relays brutality, open effort gains currency
peace harrow tunneling workers given sacrifice leads
heart need, opens again, under soil: subterranean clear focus not
sound space, waiting in dark, as prep for the death we give
light in oppose, never left to bend, shadow falling along this rock
shadow extends outer expectation florid, waiting to emerge
known cresting silence, three points angle in people’s judgment
cosmic green reed surround participating swamp static
cause is caught in struggle vocab, dream light through reeds
stationary property meant hearing within confused gray wash
rainbow stolen “civilizing” circuit horror
vendor shipment loop
built with these hands, working under bass pulse, status
music, folds finance, back waiting at treeline, pulled
into future violence, observance, after sitting with people talking
about what? creases here, rows in fields, canopy, waits in sun
dry aura winter flow, dry pool winter, careening between
the space you want to hold over us over renewed
beat, clear sense of need and how to hold onto it through
tidal wash, dipping under the surface of dream
sublimate value, what I wanted then for others, line of the shore
rising form line left, on the wash of desert hiss, closed
taken as touch, field in nuance
parade bargain, roads that merit
a graven melody in backwards, rustling undergrowth motion
paces walking went through own practice, dialogue back to mind
reverses format, serrated thought running along pavement
these structures, built or for bad hoard,
clamped on noise
to themselves in or for darkness, spirit basis and currency
benefit of system stowed in speech barreling forward
road forecasts emptied nothing reaper on a still nest
cast commodity over living current
urged instant stellar
spoken thrice, figure along stretch of road flickering light
muted non-metallic vivid overtones, went bird cloud
turn in breeze, image by mass of cars
spoke to people
stall, gather ambient, roar of echo,
buildings turning sound back to us
mass scene descends, wide view, moving in fear repeats form
massacre, its a ton or brown exceeding the gray over the scene, men
blue vigilant passage we follow, led under root and dirt
please communal repeats ends, graft breaks fictional light,
scorching light under a rose abrasion, circulating cold,
asked frequencies, aura equals thrum without a pulse
left abstract, dodging ruin, all of this west from theft
left to anger, priestly, descending on celebrating mass
left to the twelve, circulate red, frame as crane
bringing vision downward
falling away from eyes, where you see no meaning or difficulty
systematize glandular focus: memory eroding built streaming future
let it continue along what the film stops or starts
∩
Geoffrey Olsen is the author of Nerves Between Song (Beautiful Days Press 2024), and many chapbooks, most recently Neck Field (Portable Press @ Yo-Yo Labs 2025) and In Sleep the Searing (New Mundo 2025). He lives in Brooklyn.