by Suzán Jiván
An affront
to sovereignty
under
the provinces
of The Pentagon
as drones
buzz over
The little-known
in unnoticed
unarmed
and unmanned
crafts
foreshadowing
examples
of handfuls of the last man standing
beneath the rumbling rafters
of a whistling psychopath...
by Suzán Jiván
The
near
death
of the ir-
replaceable
having es-
caped
as slaves
made
from bottle-
tops under
the moniker
of folk art
with the dry
brush marks
of a hermit
in a hut
made from
the fusty
ink and brush
of the unlucky
secreted away
atop a corrugated plane
like highly attenuated play
in illusory booties over shoes...
by Suzán Jiván
I
Man
minds
his
sleeping
grand
child
II
After
midnight
while dreaming
of pack ice shrinking
III
Like retreating
white-winged
engangered
species
III
Forced to breed
in captivity
in quarantine
hitchhiking
on nursery trees
IV
Stored in igloos
made of concrete
covered by stone-eating
microbes blighted
by fungi and lichens
along landlocked highways
V
Less
and
less
reliable
at different times
VI
Heavy and light rains
falling
at varying places
VII
Fractured into factions
of attack
unmarked and unmapped
VIII
In a monotony of gravel
parsed by tangents
on a sliding scale
IX
Nudged here and there
without looking back
at sniffing animals
X
Wearing artifice
as armor
while stabbing fingers
skyward
as classically bona fide
XI
Striving like a classically
bona fide rapt exercise
with a passive statuette
XII
In prickly defense
of morbidity
with pivotal trophies
proudly
pointing out the rapture
XIII
After a long song and dance
with a contarian maverick
from the prevailing underclass
of gross misunderstandings
praised in an idyllic cast...
by Suzán Jiván
A calm
arm-
twister
relinquishing
savagery
by speaking out
with civility
after singling out
lagging
individual action
in benign hideouts
becoming cut and dry
like pie-in-the-sky-
high-stealthy might
stealing
by in noiseless flight
ready to strike
across blurring lines
of nonviolence
and deceitful hype...
by Suzán Jiván
Slightly stuffy but somewhat humble
from long-term fussing
of an absurdist
public
in unusual numbers
culminating in numerous dumpsters
as colorful sculptures
between finger
and thumb
Becoming wonderfully
messy
like an obsessive
blessing
concentrating
on the chockablock
avant-garde
as slightly bucolic tumultuous objects
in ponderous
chartreuse and olive...
by Suzán Jiván
Al-
most
halo-
like
es-
caping
un-
scathed
by
stand-
ing
fast
in
the
face
of
spec-
tators
like
sword
makers
on a background plane
il-
lu-
sion-
is-
ti-
cal
ly
por-
trayed
and
math-
em-
at-
i-
cal-
ly
based in heightened sensations
of
un-
shak-
able
faith
and
ir-
re-
pres-
sible
strength
garnering
the
same
fate
of
" The Annunciation "
in
a
bed-
chamber
twice
as high
as it is
wide
like
a
fore-
shortened
Christ...
by Suzán Jiván
A new light
to the wider
urbanized
sprawling
across
lifetimes of mile markers
like prickly matriarchs
emblazoned by bushwhackers
retreating from the urban elite
closest to the city freely or cheaply
as multi-tiers
blanketing the region
with debunkings
of the myth of one
as too vulnerable...
by Suzán Jiván
Lingering over achy phrases
as sophisticated
domains gone crazy
sounding tacky
like tasteless reality
sung ruefully
as husky and bluesy
flotsamy and blubbery
with satirical fragility
and random casualties
grotesquely hackneyed
as wannabes
with prominent scars
on ornamented bodies
of found objects
like epoxied hierarchies
of possibility
at least initially
as anomalies
involving bleaching
and teasing
coexisting arguably
as wiry wigs
of irony...
by Suzán Jiván
A wealthy backer
aggressively attacking
the eeewww factor
captured as chapters
of revulsion in matters
as shouting matches for ick factors
in full houses of haphazardly
auto-biographical smackings
of animality graphically portrayed
with an assassin's twang
while flooding the stage
with gross displays unashamedly
followed by elation in a parlor game
of disgusting charades...
by Suzán Jiván
With tingly
pleasure
unretrenched
as tellingly celestial
with an unbridled sense in extremis
bound together in intrepid text-free spreads with chapter headings
of incessant assuredness
in indelible complexities
of multi-directional reflections
ecstatically brandished
as an exacting scrapbook
of poetic couples squiggling
in the clinches...
by Suzán Jiván
Unpatterned
black bare
nostrils flare
heavy
boss svelte
forehead
erectile crest
black garters
upper legs
spotted flanks
hind legs
undulate
elongate
punctuate
full length
mouth agape
unrestrained
nearly naked
floodplain...
by Suzán Jiván
Between finger
and thumb
dun-colored
sculptures
pleasantly
jumbled
all of a sudden
posthumously loved
in burdensome tumult
in a watercolor study
of supplicants
sensibly enough
like newcomers
entirely in the nude
in casts that include
idiosyncratic humor
as pharmaceutical cures
like tear-jerkers
of absurdity seeping
outward overpoweringly...
by Suzán Jiván
Slow
moving
mostly
nocturnal
blending
in perfectly
with a good
supply
of prey
in between
parted
front legs
in a genus
capable
of decay
as a papery
egg case
in a wooden
chamber
Containing
communally
chewed food
unsuitable
for wingless
forms
feeding
in fungi
algae
and lichens
anchored
by nymphal
skin
with abdominal
segments
split
down the back
into the thorax
remaining attached
to visible wing pads
as a praying mantid...
by Suzán Jiván
A welter
of mayhem
building
momentum
from
a glower
to a pout
Hands down
spellbound
underground
lilac walls
red floors
onslaughts
just, " Because "
Living by wits
in flash-
lighted pictures
and the like
undisguised
anchored by
uncanny eyes
In pursuance
of mankind
like tough guys
hobbled by
black and white
At first light
memories
of ice
at first sight
with razor-
bladed vibes
Designed
entirely by
snippets
from diaries
incessantly
reprinted
republished
revisited
and unexhibited
as inhibitions
Along with
pale pink
bright green
and deep
lavender
refractions
of extravagance
trickling down
an hourglass
coated in wax...
by Suzán Jiván
Busy
amping
up
with
flash-
backs
in
a strange
land
foreshadowed
by glamorous
attractions
of alchemy
in admiring
eye blinks
while
hiccuping
blindly
woefully
unrecognized
sniffing
and pinching
the predictably
grisly
in the midst
of whimsy
above
the groove
while
digging in
decisively
like two-timing
rarely
harmonized
velvety quiet
with the clear
delight
of youthful
reminders
hard-wired
as fictionalized
grim statistics
in a predictable grid
of silhouetted brilliance
intrinsically dimmed
by double-crossed victims
as inconsistent sentimentalists...
by Suzán Jiván
A passel
of honors
on a long list
as a short story
filled with morphine hits
from a glorification of war
Changing hands in an armistice
of the hellishly compelling
brownish reds intimately connected
with the lethal letters of the cleverly
senseless giving up the dead
as learned lessons
crammed into a head
immersing itself
in revenge
at the multiplex...
by Suzán Jiván
The barren
expanse
of a hilly land-
scape
with gruesome flash-
backs
of ragtag top brass
swooping
over the area
frighteningly baby
faced
shell-shocked
and raving
battered blatantly
at strategic locations
of futile engagements
in a foreign language
with machination...
by Suzán Jiván
The perception
of inevitability
permeated
by the incapable
decimated
by hard labor
bound
for the stage
in an adaptation
of, " Hairspray "
with ease
and imagination
like a bequeathed
beauty queen
in a nation
weary
of the weird
being
criticized widely
as glittery
and incisive
in capering dance
and brass fanfares
with advanced
ticket sales
for the jaggedly
handsome
and the raggedly
romantic
as slicked-backed
shaggy
shaping the fragile
played dazzlingly
culminating
with a standing
ovation
in harmonic
celebration...
by Suzán Jiván
Forward-
hooked
horns
calf
born
in high-
lands
exclusive
harems
distinctive patterns
as scarce aggregates
of bachelor males
curving backward
in a darkening arc
of miombo
short bodied
knock-kneed
scraggly next
to the camel
largely adapted
as an extract
from plants
like tussock grass
Built rather small
dewlap at jaw
equally long
insubordinate
S-shaped horns
forequarters
loping along
migratory
ridged horns
U-form off-
spring born
Waterless wards
sizable hoards
cow-like horns
knobby boss
somewhat longer
Returning
to the taller
spiral-horned
dorsal borders
spotted torsos
legs tawny
thornbush
erect crest
flexing chevron
X...
by Suzán Jiván
Flight feathers
black, but white
under primaries
brown juveniles
along shorelines
around a yellow eye
large carcasses
tiny larvae
big cavities
hatching
through Sahara
waiting for scraps
shaggy ruff
dusky pink
bone-eating
revealing
underwings
raucous screams
nest linings
mammalian skin
and hair canting
side-to-side
feeding
on hares
and dik-diks
monitor lizards
drinking
preening
inconspicuously
hidden
heavy bellies
sub-desert
stick nests
at rest
wing edges
red defenses
graceful descents
shallow nests
semi-desert
watershed
empty steppes
snatched nestlings
livestock pens
compulsive theft
rivers edge
long crests
lapping wakes
seizing eyerings
dung beetles...
by Suzán Jiván
Haunting
the outer
beaches
as migrants
in the interior
short
thick bills
in winter
mournful whistle
dropping
in the middle
long
distance slimmer
wing tips
rich whistle
golden-plover
snowy
piping killdeer
broken
wing flopping
mostly
orange white
collar
field mark
obvious
underparts
mobbed
dark-tipped
whistle
clear "wheeep"
wave
washed rocks
harsh
sharp foreparts
hard, "kwip"
stout
bill over winter
teetering
bobbing uncommonly
solitary
barred underparts
muddy pond
bush top stodgy
bulky body
marbled
flocks of godwits
fairly
common on one spot
whistles
of wandering on and on
whinnying
trilling early in winter
darkening still...
by Suzán Jiván
Like an afterthought
as strength by default
varying enormously
back and forth
as eyes
crossing
into relentless
formulas
out
of proportion
on hand
as free lance
petal patterns
that vanish
clearly scattered
off
campus
by a path-
o-logical
draft...
by Suzán Jiván
Rising and falling robinlike but hoarser
as a dry call
while foraging along tall cottonwoods
all year long
waddling on lawns short tails
green gloss
gurgle whistle rough trill
high-pitched
twitter dark whisker
dense brush
buzzy buff fluttering up...
by Suzán Jiván
Raw and raucous coming to the fore
ground out and tipped off
at the epitome of artistry
as paradoxical spots
of goofy honesty
applied to white
like stated desire
in a staid place
of, " Home, Home
on the Range "
with the density
of dangly dipsticks
stippled with drips
daubs and dots...
by Suzán Jiván
Hairpin twists of coincidence
with implausible principles
of nip-n-tuck not soon enough
seemingly brittle as one tough chick
of funny money all of a sudden
unscrupulously looping
in gestural movements
gone askew while covered in tattoos
in a lurid romp past nagging problems
with reasonable analogues
snap and snarl...
by Suzán Jiván
Inshore waters
spawning
dorsal and caudal
fins forked
much sought
Caught midpoint
trawling
overhanging
predation
manmade
distorted
proportions
of body forms
Swift water
heavily silted
turbidly
intolerant
dark markings
dissolved oxygen
Corners of jaws
unusually long
at midwater
lips thick
rounded tips
Small rivers
brackish
habitats
dusky to black
chub gathering
course gravel
aborted courtship
off shore...
by Suzán Jiván
Boldly
in the open
on Poles
bright rufous
shoulders
juvenile
wing-linings
thighs
streaked down
below narrow
two-toned
scarce and local
visible only
in display
puffed up
rapidly
drumming
wing
thumping
"cluck"
rusty rump
sharp, "chik"
harsh, " check"
red-bellied distended
upended on head
chattering rattle
ladder-backed
white patch
red cap
cactus canyon
barred on back
black-capped
carrion
overlapping
black bib
whining, wheezy
"Deer-Deeer
Deee-Deeer
Deee-Deeer"...
by Suzán Jiván
A fragrant mixture
self-seeding
on spreading leaves
as silver filigrees
of Artemisia
with chives and thyme
as stoneflies
For a moment biting violins
both as logical and inexplicable
like a pilgrimage with a shimmy
left unfinished
Ably depicted as straightforwardly
as a poet and mystic of the lickety-split
at a crowded vigil for prowling animals
as artifacts of the wary in fecal matter
between two camps, pliant and groovy
in a mirrored universe
on the multiple moons of Jupiter
Like widely-separated eyes
with projections called styles
on the undersides considered primitive
with slender cerci and threadlike
antennae simple biting
predacious cycles
on stone-bottomed streams
cross-crevicing
forward-facing torpid prey...
by Suzán Jiván
Even more
hauntingly
formidable
as sapphire
crystal
re-imagined
as amethyst
in a pyramidal
prism
of vitreous solvents
of silica
simulating hydrologic
cycles of vital electrolytes
in between Isles
correspondingly re-aligned
as a crystalline skyline
in hard type openly mined...
by Suzán Jiván
Giant damselfly
fore-and-hind
wings in flight
plucking spiders
large eyes
nymphs climb
claspers
on abdomen
still grasping
stagnant
native lands
club tailed...
by Suzán Jiván
Spit and polish lavishly stocked
in an avante garde salon
of the remarkable
holding out for promise
presciently conjured
like the bygone preoccupied
at the sane time in exile
with a quadruple bow and jabot
among the oldest ingeniously folded
in alternating rows striking a pose
as a shaggy coat
grizzled gray tapering at the base
speckled red becoming widespread
standing erect broad head
digging claws conspicuously moist
and noisy like a swooping swarm...
by Suzán Jiván
Awkwardly akimbo fully uninhibited
like the carnal and demonic
insights from scholars
overseeing departments
of opalescent shards
from demolished hospitals
for auteur prophets
ode to prominence
on neat arcs sheepishly departed
like a rickety car
Roots and tubers with tender shoots
dependent on lagoons and a single
who's goose singing, "Coor-a-loo,
Coor-a-loo" in communal roosts
with eclipsing plumage
Powerfully built distinctly ringed
nearly spotless with springing
and climbing abilities
uniformly tawny
hindquarters
nocturnal forage
fox-like proportions
arid savanna, tall grass...
by Suzán Jiván
Roots and tubers
with tender shoots
dependent on lagoons
and a small white goose
singing, " Coor-a-loo, Coor-a-loo "
while facing intruders
in courtship groups
with eclipsing plumage...
by Suzán Jiván
Awkwardly akimbo fully uninhibited
like the carnal and demonic
insights from scholars
overseeing departments
of opalescent shards
from demolished hospitals
for auteur prophets
owed to prominence
in neat arcs
sheepishly departed
like a rickety car...
by Suzán Jiván
In the years before
invigorating portraits
with the past roaring
and squaring off
as thoroughly absorbing
with something more
converging on a corner
against forces
of mind-numbing conformity
never crossed...
by Suzán Jiván
Within the cozy confines
of the only place of its kind
on the spine of a sideline
swingin' on by with the arrival
of a shim-sham shimmy
as a real-time link
lovably scrappy
cohesively dramatic
cooing on ground
head bowed, gray crown
conceal, surround...
by Suzán Jiván
Gotten on enough soapboxes
from grand to modest and on and on
having gone way too far
as a grande dame
with the peek-a-boo quality
of overarching works in progress
while on the cusp of possibility
like tongue-in-cheek measured in feats
of captivity with limited experience
in idiosyncrasies coinciding uneasily
with the bottom line of domestic life...
by Suzán Jiván
Performed on YouTube
as, " Other People's Secrets "
Other people's secrets
contrived
with an insider's
vibe
strikingly destabilized
while getting
wise
to the absurdities
of life
Ferociously
nearby
locked in
tightly
on consecutive
nights
with bloody
fistfights
bestowed as a world-
wide title
Imbibing like a life-
sized
wild drinker
in the bacchanals
of the ' 60s
with an occasional
martini
and an accented flip
of the ambitious
as exotic
and unfamiliar
when and if
caught in
the middle
with an interest
in an idealistic
uplift
from a quixotic
beginner
in intoxicants...
by Suzán Jiván
Performed on YouTube
as, " Nearly Nonstop "
Nearly nonstop
as an inventive concoction
of wit and charm
with subsequent mockery
Lost in revelry
unsettlingly skinny
like melons in spring
roughly touching
gently sinuous
Grey-green laid singly
in ravines satiny sheen
hillside faraway heights
Magical properties
buoyed by steam
bulging streams
scorched pieces
jagged peaks...
by Suzán Jiván
Performed on YouTube
as, " Gently Appealing "
Gently appealing
less radical
than originally planned
with the bravura of magic
as a convoluted tale
like an iconoclastic pastor
as a quirky slacker
for the must-haves
of blandness
practicing acting
as mild-mannered
has-beens
forever on tap
for virtuosos
of so-so bo bos
Enough to make it glow
at the base I'd a cleaved face
on a basal plane
lulled by a volcano
in a conical shape
with an oozing crater
Greater and lesser yellowlegs
with whitish marks on dark upper parts
running then stopping
while nesting in a shallow depression
with bits of shells and pebbles
streakings on heads
barrings on breasts
underparts awash
low staccatos
spotted Godwits
distinctly larger...
by Suzán Jiván
Performed in YouTube
as, " Cashed the Heart Jack "
Cashed
the heart Jack
and played
another heart
while thrusting
another partner
in an inter-
locking plot
after leading
the 13th heart
and seeking solace
in an armory
after piercing
the heart
with submarginal
eyespots
on a red distal bar
sleepy orange
iridescent copper
territorial posture
wooded swamp
cobweb quarry
Masterpieces
of Ming
hard to see
entering
the scene
hand scrolling
smoky
calligraphy
above
the tundra
and hummocks
fast becoming
a summit
in great numbers
at dusk
turning the back
of his head to her
as a wood duck
wings
tucked under
grass
or brush
green
speculum
tail tipped up
head pump white clutch...
