the stage / the lights / the sensation of nervous disorder / of corporeal dissidence / the center / the dance / the raison d’être / hanging from a rope / a tree / a branch / wrapped in bandages / splintered tendons / today / circled on a calendar / move swiftly through aisles of upholstered red chairs / the dark curtain / house lights dim / a somber concerto / the rich timbre of spruce / brass / muscle / the desperate lead / a monologue / a sigh / only death can reach / can pierce / a bead of sweat on one’s forehead / an awareness of one’s own rib cage / a crack / two wooden boards / two human ribs / the exposed lung / backstage / men in black turtlenecks / pricking fingertips with sewing needles / rising action / only blood can do / can show / under spotlight / a final breath / the viscosity / stored all season in a leather chest / a curly brown wig / to remember one’s tap dance class at the age of seven / to remember the blisters on one’s feet / to remember the sound of one’s mother knocking on one’s bedroom door / the pink insulation in the walls / a cat walk / a misplaced wrench /
// intermission //
Rocko Foltz is the Allen Ginsberg Fellow at Naropa University's MFA in Creative Writing & Poetics program in Boulder, CO. Rocko is from Cleveland, OH where the skies are gray and the sidewalks are uneven. Rocko's poetry has appeared in Sinister Wisdom and Dream Pop Journal.