Zach Peckham
Zach Peckham is a writer, musician, and educator. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in jubilat, Territory, Poetry Northwest, on the Academy of American Poets website, and elsewhere. He currently teaches at Cleveland State, the Cleveland Institute of Art, and is managing editor at Cleveland Review of Books.
Initiate’s Lament-
ing
cracks
in
cracked
encracked
en
-capsulated
eng in
-junctions
lips n-spiral
in glish
of functions
function is
funct (0-
negative
gate
neg I’ve
done what
mouth
could gum
-ption up
to
-1) ion
hun u
hunt-u
Hun you
hunt the
edge
refresh
link thru
Ubuntu
hedge
Commodore
64 in twilight
dredge
but this
one is
not
fun-
(initiate
lament)
(initiated)
-damental
dement
-ed flush of
hours’ gush
out the men
-tal
image of
-tall -dark
horse or
thrush
or worse
a corsair
‘s crush
or mouth
of mush
of much
along
a long
spine ledge
lined
brimming
a lung
bringing in of
air (in) one
ring
singing
one
type (of
entreaty
O) type one
type 1: type
your name
in to
a garland
-ed
stripe
wreath a
ring
a round
a ringer
run a ring
around
the singing
singer
ring a song
a gong a
finger
the shade
they gave
the corpse
’s
face
the wraith the
federal interest
rate the
meal you had the
thing you ate the
service person
and the dining room and the
wheels right off the car
altogether
now
black donuts
fill a jar
flung o
-penned Vulcan
grip
space
ajar
ex-
tinct
in ancient
slick of
fruited
rotted
tincture drip
aperitif
this gap
a gape
this field
a place
this name
a space
you enter you
hit
the button
a lick
this supper
a sip
this life
a blooper
reel a blip
a number
a clip
a slumber
a slip
a horse
you ride
a box
you tick
a pen
you click
submit
and save
a lathe
a spade
a cave
a crypt
Carrion
awaiting resolve
an occlusion
gets thematic’d
the not sleeping
in the real
concorded with
precision
they were firing
a type of arc
drowned harvest
blighted in
heatsink
wringing toward
a zone
carry up carrying
the moon away
night vision
in the night
Other Voids
Colloidal nodes
Spectacular aspartames
Range of
Sparta’s particular crystals
Necrotic asphalt
Braided rectangular
Phosphates chromosome’d
Un
Field of party foam
Plumbed
Actual retractables
Prostrate
Omniscient blip
Pretrial vial
Concordantly dipped
Bong club formed via
Duffel bagg of porn
From some
Brambles we locate
Thicketing a swarm
Thumbed gun
Of forth
Crumpled punch
Cryo-
Plastered simp
In pitchèd pleasure
Glorious rings open
-ing O
-verhead in-
Blown rank
Cloud banks
Just incred
To see it mountain
All monumental
Incremental annulment
Berms of warrant
Varying a contract
Something factually
My vice
-roy splicing the
Root of my
Note of my
My my
O my O
My mimed
Flooded dumpster
Con figure
The chords
Throated ward
An implorement
Dear branded phantasm
I am this pro
-tracted practicum
Wrecked off our birth-
Rightful synthesis
In a breathing dream
What is
So sincerely