moving the linguistic furniture around    (in a city of unreal estate

Daniela Elza

1. walk  obsessions every day     to prevent them

from foaming at the mouth

                                 from tearing the furniture apart.

2. then go places                         without them.

 

3. study the anatomy of                     palindromes and

sidewalk shadows.       4. walk up and down      yourself

back and forth.           5. leave serrated declensions

in the kitchen.

 

the recipe  you left behind         does not add up.

you have         not                  made sense

                                              for so long

all you can do now is listen to it        hiccup all night

in its         proliferations.

 

you seal y/our soul in a jar.      till it gets the gimmes.

feed it a doggie bag of punctuation.           a variety of

 upside down silences             and gimmicks.

                           then  gamble on the liminal.

                               can you         help it?

in your severity      you say:

                             syncopated black is not so black.

then kiss me          through the bars of your void.

 

baby        you         put the ass        in assonance.

cultivate doubt in   all the   untrue  and untried ways.

 

put your finger on the pulse       then       complain

of its artificial beat

                                             while kissing wind-

worn statues       in your post operratic garden.

 

things in your hands              lose their names.

 

become untitled for posteri(or)ties

                                          for future etymologies

petrified to stones         you erect in parks for public

consumption

                               and viewing.

your name leaves

                           the truth behind.

 

I watch you fade        a little more        each day

as you march   linguistically

                                       phonetically

                                                   unapologetically

                  down the street         and around your

favourite     bruised         city corner.

Daniela Elza Photo 1.jpg

Daniela Elza lived on three continents before immigrating to Canada in 1999. She is primarily a poet, who has developed a passion for essays lately. Her latest poetry collections 'the broken boat' & 'slow erosions' (a chapbook written in collaboration with poet Arlene Ang), were published and launched under pandemic conditions. Her essays can be found in Riddle Fence, Grain Magazine, the Queen’s Quarterly, Motherwell, The Tyee, and About Place Journal (Geographies of Justice issue). Daniela works as a writing and speech arts instructor. She lives in Vancouver, BC, where she is fighting to preserve the only dignified affordable housing left.