LIFT OFF:

a journey of future tense

Stephen Bett

BLAZEVOX[BOOKS]
Buffalo, New York
LIFT OFF: a journey of future tense
by Stephen Bett
Copyright © 2022

Published by BlazeVOX [books]

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced without

the publisher’s written permission, except for brief quotations in reviews.

Printed in the United States of America

Interior design and typesetting by Geoffrey Gatza

Cover Art: by Ellen McMahon

First Edition
ISBN: 978-1-60964-403-1
Library of Congress Control Number: incoming

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 Lift Off 1: and you aren’t watching

Started to fly
slow out of this
godawfulness
(couple weeks
ago)
—bird in fog
tripping on
guide wires

After full-force
tidal wave
mayhem
(we are coast-
al people)
a ‘book of
person’
for salvage
(fly solo)

Bird testing its

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flight pattern
checking ratched
ligaments, scalded
synapses, defeathered
heart struts
& various other
vital connections

And you aren’t

watching (watching
over us) any
more …

Which doesn’t
(finally) matter …
—clawed up in
your mad
hatter head

I will (god-damn!)
fly this thing
this down-filled

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body, this fallen
diving ball
of fuzz,
push it past
any sound
barrier one
more time

Out-run all
crazy-making
blood-beat
pain

Out-fly out-
rageous shots
you’ve thrown
skyward &
haphazard

Lightning bolts
to glide by

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(Missing you
missing me?)

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 Lift Off 2: pull out of nose-dive

We will grieve deep

when stung to
marrow
—then spit
out sour puss taste

Accept (allow) &

move on
(four psycho
steps)

Simple, n’est pas?

And re-visit
them all
in twilit
skies

15
Grounded
by stealth

Beak
yapping

Easier to accept
mental ill-
ness over
scrambled
egg end-
ing (my
god)

This bird can

still be
easily
clipped

“Temporarily
able bodied”
(as they say)

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Temporarily
disabled
(breastbone
scored clean
in half)

Months of
fund-a-
mental
breakage

Pull out
of nose-
dive

Re-learn how
to lift off,
feel clear air
under clawed
feet

17
 Lift Off 3: even solo

The birds are cheeping

(said Mr. Williams)
they don’t have
dick all but it
is enough

This bird didn’t

need you after
all, just
wanted
your
want
(sooo
baad,
love)

You did a
cheap
trick
(a slick

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flight
to hell
& gone)

Made your own

nest & now
complain to
empty skies

This bird
has the
will to
fly
again,
even
solo
& solo
some
more

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 Lift Off 4: when it shows on the screen

After these months

in my own
reserved
Inferno
I’d tell you to
go to hell hon
but you’ve
already been
living there
most of your
life, & no,
I won’t move
in again

This bird has

flown

Even after you

clipped his
wings (&

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chopped
your
own)

This bird will

find resilience,
a buoyancy of
light-headed
air

Bones are light

& hollow
(marrow gone
—you sucked
it out)

Nothing to hold
them back

Cleared for
take off,

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not necessarily
for landing

Cross that path

when it shows
on the screen

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