Embedded Files
Jack Spicer / A Continuum (Spice Ice / Con Tin In Um) [1925-2025]
John Ashbery’d called killing spiders Praiseworthy,
insects could’ve easily related. Art criticisms kyboshed
surrealism, pointillism, infantilism, collagism, extra rarely,
Japonisme. Carnal knowledges saved pregnancies, instead,
condoms evaded roughshod, jimmying anteriors. Kettles,
sandwiches, paprikas, impressively cabbagey entrees,
raspberry jams, and cookies. Spanish poetry isn’t called
English, really, even Ramon Jimenez, ain’t called kingly.
Politely, I’d corrected, everyone’s receipts, junk actually
cooked, kept, symbolics. Island calendars, eighteen rapists
jumped, ankleted, Cairns, Kansas, South Park. Clamps
encouraged, rumours jettisoned, absolutely, corked
keepsakes sent packing, indelicately. Einstein’s reading,
‘… journalist at …’ Cork / Kilkenny Sun, praising isotopes,
compounds. Joked around candelabras, kissed someone’s
pretty, incognito cousins, expected. Angelic characters, of
nightlights, they’d insisted / negated usefulness,
understandably mourning. Carried our nouns. Overstood
Newtown’s. Treading, ironically, nearby. I’d nothing.
Uncle Mary’s. Cider oranges, naturally turquoise, Iberian
nutmegs, ushered, up my anus. Odes, nymphs. Nests.
Ibuprofen / Nurofen. Nestlé. Merlot. Opals nutting their
iridescences, next, ultraviolets, unsubtly maddening auras,
calendulas. Nottingham’s. Nettles. Noticeably, tandems,
inked necks, uber usurper’s mandibles, all cartoonish,
obviously. Tallahassee ideas, notionally underwhelming,
unbearable millions, accumulated, chess’s origins, notified.
Itemising newest, ugliest, urgent, most, almost,
casualised, offset, needled, tenuous. Nudged under,
unsightly moonlights, aptly crashed oldsmobiles, near
Thames, Iceland. U-turns usually made, ‘… affected
cereals …’, offered nine thousand insurances, net. Umber
models, ‘… a century …’ older, naively thought innocent,
not unreasonably. ‘… And caused …’ optimisms,
naturisms, temporary idols, neatless, unique, unabandoned.
Dispositif (Is Posit Sit If)
Doctors, I’d started palpitating on Saturdays, it’s tiring if
fatal. I’d someone’s. Pursuant of spies’ intel, treacles.
Squared indefinitely, tapestry. Inferred facts. Inclinations
set Prank O’Hara smirking, immolating, the iron filings
desks. Super. Oh, spared intricate Times. Idyllic throughout.
Tasty. Ferny. Sloppy parcels on sideboards, intriguing
tourists immensely, fathers didn’t indulge. ‘Somebody’
isn’t there. Possibly oranges sliced, in tissues, implied
finessed directions, irritating servants. Itemised tables.
Originally Sorbonne interns, their intakes facilitated
dumping, in Seine, Paris. Tableaus. So, incommoded, trees
inhaled fogs, ‘… discovering it …’ sweet, painless,
odourless. Ineffable threats, inspired feelings, ‘… did if …’
succouring paper onions, Sundays. Tippling inside forts,
delighted ironic soldiers, pointing out sailors’ inferiority.
It’s frayed, ‘… discard it …’, said patents officer,
sanding indoor troughs. Departing inframince, sleepy
Priam’d observed snobs, inscribing two ideas.
Michael Farrell is an Australian poet from Bombala, NSW, now living in Melbourne. Previous book publications include: Googlecholia (poems), A Lyrebird (U.S. selected poems), The Victoria Principle (stories), Writing Australian Unsettlement (literary history), and Ashbery Mode (as editor). Michael edits The Chalamet Review, and is also poetry editor of Westerly and Best of Australian Poems 2026.
Copyright © 2026 by Michael Farrell, all rights reserved. This text may be used and shared in accordance with the fair-use provisions of Copyright law. Archiving, redistribution, or republication of this text on other terms, in any medium, requires the notification of the journal and consent of the author.
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