from "We Do the Polis"
Pent up
in a narrow
compass
and shortened
on every side
by the neigh-
borhood
of walls
These veterans
of future wars
handing out
the PTSD
brieflets
before
the mess
to come
*
Were verbing
swerved
and swayed
into sieves
maneuvering
toward
fissures
in the line
Swallowed
the scare quotes
and choked on
what hung there
in the air
around me
stripped of that
security
*
A field
of intensities
pulse through
a set
of others
coaligned
in throng
song
What poetry
is this
happening
too fast
to count
the syllables
in each throat's
retort
Copyright @ 2014 by David Buuck. Used with permission of the author. This poem appeared in Poem-a-Day on August 21, 2014.
“This excerpt is from a book about Occupy Oakland and related political struggles. It attempts to find forms of representation adequate to the social and affective contents of the historical conjunctures that have sprung up in Oakland, California and elsewhere over the last few years.”
—David Buuck
David Buuck
David Buuck’s most recent publications include the chapbook The Riotous Outside (Commune Editions, 2018) and the book Noise in the Face of (Roof Books, 2016).