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  • The First Four Years

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    Richard Millett
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    Originally published in 2007. This compilation featured newly credited edits of material from the early 2000's.

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    Originally published in 2007. This compilation featured newly credited edits of material from the early 2000's.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf
    192 views20 pages

    The First Four Years

    Uploaded by

    Richard Millett
    Originally published in 2007. This compilation featured newly credited edits of material from the early 2000's.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    Download as pdf
    of 20
    PHILADELPHIA hws in Phiadetphio wating forthe maid Iglanced cut the window ‘down at kids younger than me Fooking lke | did a 16 comparing biographies completing each others fragments fexcranging glasses freezing enzymes on magnets | stopped by the swimming pool and flicked a few crumbs out he water the convention got postponed info a porade the police misplaced the exit ‘and were unsympathetic {6 the problems they had failed fo protect Uke a dinosour shel had fallen and cracked the Woerly bell ‘whose confined drone ‘Qui cellphones and trafic Gnd didn't cease unilla ne, tos cut fo the Bryn Maw bricks which had gone urrestored since 1996 ‘And Comrie, you saw the samme kids did ‘you knew hod come to this Care, hold out yr hand Iwan fo re-ptint the promises (cur whot was necessary became arbitrary Iwas watching & movie wih a chapter of valeys separating the tombs hd pointings Mal could be pointed 10 ‘and the assertion io dance az that's when “they” cant aim at you ‘And you's bean woiting since 1984 Sleeping at hepbutn's door ‘hile wanted lo be related to Bette Dovis Camo, hold out yrhand cuz !don't want entertainment {want some dk victory 0 grace us Those kids were rendered wet ‘nd recruited witn the fouretios Sf decade old prints at ground every context ul fi there wos no piace left fospeck your peace with nyiing ste tron facts Canie, hold out yr hand ‘cuz the distractions crent soe hold out yrhand your stage is my private place ANIMALS ‘You soak the campetin tnco sezaiching the hor off your arms You kicked out the sanger ficiculed the supasstiions he heid onto You le restless stoving ean, wiping sweat ‘And Tink about this quite alot pressing the grooves of my fingerprints Into my forehead sending on idea thot rerrinds us both hot there was another pian in crumoies of sugar Isaw wild motion hunched myself towards it looked at it heppening iNet ike-o parade elephants awake and galant ihod been so nerve stacked the loops of my heart sings matched my eyelashes i wore a royal bive jacket wih gold sleeves there was a swt that came fom the kumpels @ umphant chaos of repeating ‘nore were banners hung ftom the tusks sy fingers nad gone purple ‘rom clutching ihe barkets next fo me ‘American Gothic didn't have this many thoms fr any sepi tones fo run on Iwas welcomed in the house Tale the cracker ottered the speech heated sleocily ‘founda pil of fower seeds the disploys had chanting (ond chips of bone and siNer «@ collection forthe prison fond odd hides of hunters there wasn't an explosion but then the ground bec ‘swam through the cracks all the plants had red sterns iwant to be new rollon sow ‘get my tbs bit by @ ger nave memories about you, that cackle jean see you bumming & cigarette rom yr grandkids With sazled mouth ond sting hoir when youre younger you were spring in yr superhero underwear But you couldn be my fle ‘we never paid rent fo each other {and theres 0 many people ‘wm dni know where To go to baile ican cfm fo the top of he bungalow ‘and jump off tie 2nd ievel Kick my legs on the way down ‘wave fo Merk Mondoy ‘and get strawbemyitakan ice after lean cfm into @ rove ‘yelow ah shot onio wanda ‘and when my foot goes through the floorboard Tag down a poserby [pay or9 ide on the thresher ‘Wolves that iond ‘can burst into fre deer protect themselves ‘and bears break into grain silos rabbis are the rols of the desert ‘and craw to eat rice on the plains When the evening silland quiet and the candles are glowing violet the sultry ak makes you ‘drop your cares, your doubts and your frowns ‘You descend the sais and head inlo town Walk through the leaty glade float on the ground beneath you! ‘walk al night with your gare fixed on your overs face Sing a song of love thal you learned from above ream of hex caress the nape of her neck {and know that youll never patt \Wnen the evening's sil and dork ght remains in your heart you feel so free smashing ennui, you could be skipping stones, af alone and not mind, Walk through the leaty alode oat on the ground beneath you picture her deticate face {nd ring the bell ot her gate Sing her a song of ove {eel yourjoy soar ike a dove and when youre of home, reading her poems you know that you have found someone who can make all your dreams come true WATER woter/water ‘woter/water watertwater ‘water water water water woter I'd ove fo fe by the sea ane feel motion evaporate then sofaily into a form we soe in Bax ‘or be on course fo be boundless, and sing ofthe inspation ciring @ voice al the sky, never again id ead a totlered sgn my body ne longer closed in the fol of crt ond clay, bu! windblown and ‘awake seeing droplets and rivers become oceans and lokes the sall daring through the air, ends my hunger ilcleans the shore and creates the permanent skuctures {05 he molecules become ighlor and smaller Dance in the water woman ond man Thou shalt nave c boot, Thou shalt save o fish, how shalt be steering ‘When the boat comes in ‘Thou shalt nave a vision up in he crows nest Dancin the water ‘woman ond man Dance in the water ‘dance for the bis dance for he wind dance for everyone on land ‘thou shalt see the king botore the revolt ‘thou shal find @ partner ‘one fo lave ond fo hold man willbe worman ‘andl woman wil be man Dance in the water fo the perch and fo the sane lone lived on Sofsbury Plain ‘we'd come fom kelane! ‘and only ale grain ‘we changed heir balile hymns ‘and subsfivied our names, ‘we sang boldly "We shal ule the waves never, never, never shall we be slaves" We sailed fo the pacific fighting equinoctil gales “we fell berated by the sight Of shorks, sors anc whotes ‘we gathered sirength and suvived the death of captain MeCaughey for we would have been despised by his ghostif we stopped facing the sea Now we're outward bound toward The Guit fo the Indies and back cround Well gather gifts wherever we dock {and when wete headed homeward Ebting siver aaloee, fond a Persian cot and a corel fur [And you won't weer those castofts no more Now, haul eway the bowing The ship isroling fee tough ite We merchants undergo ‘And we don't give o damn ow hard the winds blow Thesollos give usa bad name they let us fo fal trough ine weary waves, they throw @ hatchet in the foor af their boat {and it doesn't sink you'r hear them gloat bulif we roar out of erder never again would we see the sea We sai with a northerly gate {0 our sland home in he county of Cork ‘Our mainmast sprung, our piiching done, fren our stomachs, sal water in our ungs Now, hauleway the bowing The ship isroting Now, haul eway the bowing The ship is saing Now, hauleway the bowing The ship isroling Now, hauleway the bowtne The ship i sang Now. naul away the bowline The ship isroling Now. haul away the bowine: “he ship is sling Now haul away the bowling The ships oling ‘ocean/ocean ocean/ocean ‘ocean/ocean ‘oceanjocean ‘endless ocean, endless ocean Imaved where could be you ‘away from things | car see through threw away my socks ond shoes 10 be waiting ot your shore endless ocean, endless ocean my blood hos departed | stopped the things fd started my organs are unguarded 1366 your waves ge! parled by the fide ond it pping mood swings cendless ocean, endless ocean yousing, you sing so pettecily lamin love inside the cotton of your warmth ‘endless ocean mcalm and now tmhere: yourteflecton isso clear the skys justo mizor ‘an imitation of you ‘endless ocean. endless ocean I don't need fo tak ound what Ihave sought info you | wil work endless ocean, endless ocean IM FEELINGS ARE STARTING TO MERGE Watching everyihing spreading together moving out futher & further Fmstutering tke @ muscle | sweep & coll past the buikgings ddousing he ground in water {wisting rough silness & exhaustion My weight i faling off the venis in my chest are flooded My feelings ore sorting to merge where the lown hls the glacier before ge I don't understand why the vampire stood in a brush fre insload of sucking oxygen from hha scorecrow's finger Ike Tuesday had stopped the reverberating door reminded me ofa wornan that saw fer features replicating the cicfionory The room dripped lemon juice, the furiture decades ‘ne orange light made Baxter's biography easier to rea, ne'd lett a. copy w/a note in German, his skewn equipment Played me at several speeds Minished reading {and | spoke too lous for the speaker to receive the sound ‘ne signa, it crackled into the pores of the shelves and back porch floor boards Baxter's board was in the sink his acquaintance stept annoyed in the aisle elt fke id gotten momied S50 went through your sewing supplies fo see ifd let anything behind But Theresa isnt here fo think through for me ‘you played me a private song ‘ond the choruses rolled clong unit stated raining Iwendeted where the teeth were thal | ep! on flower plale when Theresa held cout! on the root ‘Te late letter looks through @ glass door ‘where the gypsies take over ‘ond starve for onions ‘and Theresa explains her ideas This is the brightest 7 o'clock Ne everseen ‘the sun won't leave the buck meon ‘he Buck Moon willappear though mercury fais connected to is craters the solltouched by the ight becomes ‘mortar and aiurrinum ‘which I'l spoon up and leavein a medicine jar ‘iongsid to tniment & syrup Baxter toaves, tokes his clothes off the wire vile he soaks fo calm his supersions ‘he Buck Moon haraly recognizes the branches grown over & draping themselves over the books shelves the Unicycle was o gif which | apparently hid under the plantation so no archaeologists would ever steal You've got stethoscope in yr hands cond yr forgetting how to lak eel w hand on my head again {and see the creases in your age all asieop otter the intemational news appears 'm being kept open nero. pao UE the hunter digs his way under the fokage, he fook the knife securely fad to his thigh, foel the wind against his camoutiage he is patient, he smhy!hm, pieces of the sky land in his traps he meils hem down ane drinks them ter dinner {ne hunter crawls to his plywood shack and Ssoves is venison for lator the next day he heads underwater at sunrise to catch fh with his hands mostly though. he's interested in laying lace dawn hoping fo catch a turkey or uproot a tree forhishome he re-asiembles his shack info @ rownoat {and leaves it for someone to take fhe walks 4.5 mies ona hops on the scheduled open backed bus ‘on is way home, he updates his archives, regarding the game he captured his copious notes include deiail for beyond thal ofsize shape and weight however, he longest and mos! personaly relevant entfies are those wnere Ne meficuousyre-counts the manner in which he tiurmphed over his environment ‘mark porter comrriied suicide on sunday hhe had converted fo ktom fo ge! maniog he had lst his largest commission his middle nome was alen Trough the center ofa branch fo the worm at the root this oper dust wos macte for you, you being me degrees faling making exhoust more impressive than it seers bork peeled down the free paintings dripping from her kame teeth, white yogurt on ash wednesday call his sreanger cuz the whee! s waiting for you there's ice in he cabinet chewing thyough to the root ‘ne dog barks at 6:10am you shrieking wakes up 4 your pesuasion has ne eurtet You" Table and chairs ore forgot nthe 161% tne roofs geting weaker At he offce, the copier is out of toner unt hursday slay with me sty with me finger paintings ne the attic nonsensical shapes with mms speed words local men ate fring blanks “while they leave for work ‘re they stil speaking enaishe they breathe very loud gleciers ore rocring the foshpotsin y ming no points loaded body hai grown you become convinced ‘Sveryone wants you fo in THA-ZWH spent the day in a monotone mood watching commercials ‘watching anita bryant with four crew-cut men in 1965 jing cole fueled chistion clothes.on hitler youth orgy of ne future {future where only animals are nutiious ‘and crab grass causes cancer undemeath iti ‘underneath itis plain ‘ndemeath i isreosonably explained ‘undemeath i iis yes and no undemeath it itis wave and beat Uuncexneath its parted behveen elbow and shoulder as much time created inside a shark ‘we gave him away oa freman and we used 19 ‘wait on our stomachs for our mother fo come and father would get {nite annoyed it was when we hac even faces the comp kept the blue dag that walked away PEOPLE ama young man ‘osed otf in misroora my name it doesn't matter Where I'm fom, 1can't fel you always wanted fo control my destiny nol shore responsibilty £0 1c0uld be free, They sent me off fo college s0 I could learn the law I met a lot of people ‘each one with a different cause lured myself fo physics andl astronomy fo see if could throw away the seeds ney had put in me | defied down to the South ‘and sew it wos vast memorized equations on the eyeless ending sand Liner that my supetiors, hey were very song they would put me up in space ‘and never steer me wrong My expectations dida't fy they kept me on the ground tne paperwork was drafted ‘and I wos shown around they checked my pos for anesis iy telinas were scanied lneped that there would come a day ‘when | could take command ‘They made me go and lock the doors fond cve the landing thts Iwas @ sacrat esion In the midalo of the night ‘he bumers storied blaring | crowled inside my sult knew Fwoukin'r come backit hey asked me to Lama young man ‘closed off in his room my nome itdoesn't matter Wherein fom, !con't fll you Trohways wanted lo contol my own destiny ‘wanted fo go and varish up in the sipsteam The emperor looked ct the head of the horse Fed his nane ‘and picked out the brain ‘opened his mouth, and smeared the remains he dressed his servants ‘esnymphs and pans Ile boysin the nude slayed in the pool {o bite on his body wae he swam Fis sister soa "foreath ra blade ‘nen deste ie the cage ‘aim your bistvight belore you're saved” had his mother kiled ‘made Ita crime to laugh otlacked the statve ‘who's clothes matched his own fis bleeding fis sunk into the gold He memovtzed the lives of the gods LJezebelstole him a tunic fhe begon planning his burial Gt right he debated with Jupiter He sow Palatine Hil tne volcanoes wore calm botore ine chiisians buried Diamond tipped shovels were used to pierce fhe colnvis and arches jewels and viens The violns on Potatine Hil played! Ike bids coliging in the at the torches fored al the grain was set glowing The senator's body rolled back on the sheets his speech @ pavsed spasm murmuring Ym nursing @ viper" Therest of fhe ward wilingly succumbed immediately In the middle of the eymnasium ‘were Soothe with men in bullet proof vests

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