TWO POEMS BY MARK YOUNG




                    SOLSTICE



          Pathogens are added
          to the ends of
          words. It is deliberate,
          an attempt to induce
          inflection by introducing
          ablative elements that
          rupture the foetal
          membranes. In winter
          soma is used. Sleep
          deprivation & a viral
          line that dances on
          the leaves of water-
          lilies. Until then, all she
          knew about was horses.




                    HALFTONE PROCESS



          He was an occult
          haemorrhage, a
          western-swing musician
          whose short odes,
          derived from the
          tanka, were traditionally
          boiled in a sheep’s
          stomach for several
          hours before perform-
          ance. Twin-edged,
          extolling the pleasures
          of life but at the
          same time bringing
          precipitation in either
          the form of ice or pit-
          shaped follicles embedded
          in the second layer
          of skin. His best-known
          album is “The Tonton
          Macoute invade the
          Hagia Sophia” in which
          he demonstrated
          for the first time
          that plants absorb air.




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Mark Young is a New Zealander now living on the Tropic of Capricorn in Rockhampton, Australia. Recent work has appeared or is to appear in Spore, eratio, hutt, Aught, Starfish, MiPoesias & Moria. His most recent book, episodes, has just been published by xPress(ed), & he is co-editor, with Jean Vengua, of the forthcoming The First Hay(na)ku Anthology to be published by Meritage Press. He maintains a web log pelican dreaming & an author's page at the New Zealand electronic poetry centre.


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