Five Poems, by Carrie Hunter

Mudslide Carrie

Maybe the only resolution to the problem of cultural binaries is in the cultivation of emptiness. I’m sick of carrots. The desire to ascribe human agency to inanimate objects. Racist on the bus saying “kimono virus.” As if the white space is a peep-hole. Can I get the “antidote” test? ABO blood stories. Do they name mudslides? My anxiety has me totally prepared for the wrong thing. Thurston understands sequence but not time. You like anything to do with Tiki.

The Fiction of the Author

It’s like a totally different doorway to the same thing. At least an apology is better than not an apology. Another person dead. The demise of generations. Bought a split tape from Finland. I don’t understand the psychology of not believing the virus is real. I’m ideas and you’re sensations. Do you ever say anvil when you meant Advil? Captured on video camera. That’s not even a real yawn. The symbol of an object. Superspreader event. Selfie stick cinematography. Stay out of Marianne’s light. Viral RNA remnants.

Maskism

Busy can mean being alone. Asynchronous. Wave after wave. There is no wave. I’m starting to get used to myself. Politics of believability. Retesting in repair and reuse. A sutric practice. You must not recreate. How meditation can be an elaboration. Zukofsky’s critique of John Cage. The imperative “Post without explanation.” Smackwave. Shelter dog (in place). Quantization. Glad I don’t have bangs to deal with right now. I’m just spitballing. Emptiness is not nothingness. Operation workspeed. Start with the Black Death.

Pandemia

A race to the bottom. The corporate monopolies deal with boycotts the way the government deals with terrorists: Don’t cave in. Neutralizing antibody response. Pay me not to work, pay everyone not to work. The weaponized curfew. Homosexual chemtrails. “The origins server did not find a current representation for the target resource or is not willing to disclose that one exists.” The so called “air-bridges.” I say everything is a stinkbug. The distinction between CD4 and CD8T cells. The zone of galactic obscuration. The fight for the audience.

PaintCakes

I like my own devices, but I don’t like that device. Drinking a hard seltzer: Nature is healing. From the gutters of reddit. Stoned epiphany #6: Men want to escape their minds; women want to escape their bodies. I know so many Little Richard songs because of my dad singing around the house. Ready Teddy, as we were about to go somewhere in the car. When my housemate lies to her dog each and every day and says, “I’ll be right back.” They don’t want anything like healing to happen because it would disempower them. Is this paint or is this cake?

Carrie Hunter received her MFA/MA in the Poetics program at New College of California, was on the editorial board of Black Radish Books, and edited the chapbook press, ypolita press, for 11 years. She has two books out with Black Radish Books, The Incompossible and Orphan Machines, and has published around 15 chapbooks. Her third full length book, Vibratory Milieu, is forthcoming from Nightboat books in Fall of 2020. She lives in San Francisco and teaches ESL.