Jared Stanley
Jared Stanley’s fourth book, So Tough, is forthcoming from Saturnalia Books. He lives in Reno and teaches in the MFA Program at the University of Nevada, Reno.
Days on the Mountain
Once I came to a mountain to fill my head with air.
The wind whistled over the exposed beams of a tower
painted in red and white stripes, visible from the city
sending weaponized, soundless applause back and forth
from a great height.
My teacher had suddenly died
breathing in another city
and, since any city is more places than one
I came up here to whisper into the hollow of a tree —
he taught sleep at the speed of water,
how to grind a mountain down like this
so I started at the top, sleeping sleeping…
his tongue slipped loose at the edge of hearing
in a smooth world, touchless, fingerless
I fell down, placed a stone on the machine in my room.
His voice was the lip-blood in my mouth.
Afterworld
The wind carries paperwork.
It was music from when
the world was real, is—
a sparrow burps:
sounds like a scam
Wildflowers Explained
Balsamroot…………………………………..……………………………………Touch me not.
Beckwith’s Violet……….…In this observation, grief mixes with surprise.
Dandelion . …………………………………………….……………Spring is always early.
Datura………………...…….…………………...…...Lost your damn mind to history.
Desert Rock Nettle……..………………………..……………….………….I hear hissing.
Fireweed……………..…..………..…Torching reality is a right-handed dream.
Iris………………….…………………………..……………Blunt, purple and speechless.
Leafybract aster………….… Absorbing the “time-music of the quasars.”
Lily, Winding Mariposa……….……….….. Dyed your pubes in a sex dream.
Primrose, tufted evening………………………………...…...………….. Inconstancy.
Phlox………………………….…….……………….……….………………….………… Unanimity.
Poppy, Prickly……………………………….… Sleep, my bane. Sun, my antidote.
Sandlily……………………………………………………………… I attach my dust to you.
Subalpine Fleabane………………………..……….… Fascination and repulsion.
Sunflower……………... In adoration, pain and snarling belief are undone.
Tailcup Lupine……………..….………………….…………….. Voracious imagination.