The eyes that see this story are waving
at me ecstatically, are eyes that will flower
erratically into the formless buttocks of the
animal kingdom is showing its
many secret cartoon faces
and eyes are two poorly drawn alabaster
mounds will follow us with the desperate
grin of the last species being gored
with firmament of memories above, of
sweaty palms and tar, and below
nothing but unfortunate incidents
involving eyes and words and moments
when children think of gems—and the
same half-cocked formula slathered on
a tree whips about in the breeze like a
warm salivating glove, and she’s looking back at
me with the sweetest little greedy glances, and
I sow these stars
along my sleeve to carry them
with me or to be tucked behind the tiniest
corner of my left eye like a drawer
in the viscous humor. For within
our barking mouths another face
—like a diamond being pried open
gently at first and then with an
increasing violence while
a droplet of water meanders from one
corner of the windowpane to the other—
is written looks nothing like an animal. Perhaps
it’s like a hope you cannot speak for fear
it’ll alter everything except for
everything’s already been altered.
Gabriel Yao Chad Boyer is editor-in-chief a micro-press / record label called Mutable Sound. He has self-published a number of books and put out a number of records. Some of these include: Twilight at the Lady Jane Grey College for Little Ladies, A Survey of My Failures This Far, A Journey to Happiness Island, Welcome to Weltschmerz, and No Place to Die. He currently lives and works in Boston with his wife.