Poetry: Selections from Ann Pedone

From: Jack

European

In all honesty, the ultrasound was very hazy, but I looked at it anyway

 

All the men I never married lined up single file out in the corridor

 

Yes, yes, I can assure you, I am working on it right now, yes, the

transcriptions of everything, every last thing that was LEAKED

 

At least four women, maybe more, have been detained at the World

Cup & no one really knows for sure what’s happening in China

 

The tech forces the probe futher up inside of me & my clitoris

bounces pale but oh so very translucent b/w the two of us

 

It was late morning, that’s all I remember, that’s all I can say

 

& the dr comes in, gently sniffs at it

 

Have you seriously considered, I mean really seriously

considered, the European perspective here

 

A small pool of blood appears b/w my legs, thin but very very sticky

 

Even now w/ the wide-spread use of the vaccine, the whole country is

still split straight down the middle politically & even

religiously  sexually

 

No one ever has the body that they really want & I was already

too late for everything, meaning I’ve already said too much

 

There’s a lot about your uterus, my dear, that is to be

greatly admired, maybe even, I should say, worshippped

 

The door opens & everything I thought I knew about my-

self is gone. I pick up the phone. I want to call someone in

California, but then I realize I’ve never really been any-

where but there

Tesla

I’m still trying to sort out

a few things but I can tell you

w/ all of my con-

fi-

 

dence that

the traffic coming

down on 101

South really

wasn’t bad

at all & now

with this brand new comm-

 

ute lane the drive from San

Mateo to Cup-

er-

tino

is always just about

a dream. I had both of my

windows down & ab-

solutely every Tesla                            I passed

asked if they could help with

my hard-

on

 

It amazes me how after

two whole Bush Adminis-

trations there

can still be such

moments of pure

human beauty

 

I need you to do me a favor & stop at Home

Depot on your way

Buy the biggest-heaviest

FLASHLIGHT they have

But don’t waste any time we

need to copulate

quickly before your wife

tries to

 

FACE-

 

 

TIME

 

you

 

(And yes, that was indeed Musk you saw wandering in

hallway earlier)

 

 

I haven’t exactly totally been in my body

the last few days but I have the feeling that even you

would agree that the freeway system in Calif-

ornia is completely magnifi-

cent

 

It was built by the Eisenhower Ad-

ministration during the long 19-

50’s

 

Not everyone knows this but back then he was known simply as

Ike

The dream I had last night is still going

 

I tried looking up “stick memory” on my

phone thinking that would get me out of it but clearly

this is no longer a world where the truth can be bo easily told

 

You have the flashlight? Good. Bring it right

over here you see

 

Not unlike most post-War Americans

I was always totally convinced that my clitoris looked

exactly like a very small button mushroom

The kind you find sliced & packed up so

neatly in cardboard boxes at any SAFE-

WAY

 

Here. Just shine the light right there. Ok.

You see it?

Since then I have taken many

pictures of it both for you &

frankly some just for myself

 

I stayed up many many nights            studying it in

exhaustive detail until my little heart

cracked open & I was

hungrier than ever or not hungry at

all it was such instant

heaven that I couldn’t tell

Multiple Screenshots Captured Between 3/1/22 and 4/3/22

            There is no part of the

            San Francisco Bay where bodies don’t float

 

 

                                                                        Nipple-wet

 

            Do you have any water you can bring?

            All of mine has THICKend

 

                                   

                                    Yes, Air France did call

                                    although you might as well call

                                    it a scream

 

 

            styrofoam

            oil drums

            men who have too many children

           

           

                                    Steer clear of the parking lot. There have been reports of rabbits

 

 

            The woman in the very next room

            is a thought I can’t possibly complete

 

           

                                    Spent three days cooking

                                    Left a steak and two plates

                                    of roasted potatoes out in the front seat

                                    of your car—No. It’s a purely political act s definitely tottaly political

 

 

            WOMAN: YOU want to fuck her?

            MAN:  You want me to fuck her?

            WOMAN: Is there an answer to this question that is not preserved

                              in glass?

 

 

                                    The maid’s cart. The one in the very next room.

                                    I don’t think she has nearly enough toilet paper

                                    for what you have in mind

 

 

                                                            Fuck Lacan. t’s always the body that knows first

                                                            what’s missing

Stein

If there is cum on the toilet

seat don’t call

downstairs &

complain b/c it is mine

What are the chances the front

desk would have

put us in this room

again the last one

on the left

 

witch-shaped

 

That’s rain now in the parking

lot very very heavy rain for

this time of year & that is the

same large man who came in

earlier on his motorcycle

I fear a motel I love a motel esp

ones where you know a lot

of people have gotten laid

As soon as I got here first

thing I did

I pulled down all the sheets &

I can tell you Gertrude

Stein never slept here

Ann Pedone is the author of The Medea Notebooks (spring, 2023 Etruscan Press),

and The Italian Professor’s Wife (2022, Press 53), as well as the chapbooks

The Bird Happened, perhaps there is a sky we don’t know: a re-imagining of

sappho, Everywhere You Put Your Mouth, Sea [break], and DREAM/WORK.

Her work has recently appeared in The American Journal of Poetry, Chicago

Quarterly Review, The Louisville Review, Barrow Street, and New York

Quarterly. She has been nominated for Best of the Net, and has appeared as

Best American Poetry’s “Pick of the Week”.