Saturday, September 24, 2011

Mathematical theorems tornadoing

This poem is fun!

   Horse’s Adventure    by Jason Bredle 

   The horse discovered a gateway to another
   dimension, and with nothing else to do, moseyed
   into it just for grins, and man, you
   don’t even want to know what happened
   next—it was just, like, Horse at the French
   Revolution. Horse in Franco’s living room.
   Horse on the moon. Horse in a supporting role 
   in an episode of ER. Horse being shot
   out of a cannon. Horse on The Price Is Right.
   Horse in a Whitesnake video. Horse
   at Kennedy’s assassination. Horse in the Tet
   Offensive. Horse at the Gap gawking at some
   khaki pants. Horse in Julie Piepmeyer’s
   bathroom. Horse being tossed out of an airplane
   with a parachute strapped to its back, plummeting
   toward Nebraska. Horse on Capitol Hill 
   (Yes, I’d like the floor to recognize
   the distinguished horse from Arizona). Horse
   on the subway. Horse authorizing a peace treaty
   between the U.S. and Iraq. Horse
   in the Evansville State Hospital. Horse caught up
   in a White Hen robbery. Horse in the Kentucky
   Derby. Horse staring at the merry-go-round
   at King’s Island in Cincinnati, Ohio.
   The list goes on and on. And so goes
   the horse’s adventure, where one minute
   it’s standing next to Pat Sajak and with a violent
   flash like that of a murderous camera or the twirling
   screen and music of a Batman episode
   it’s standing in the middle of US-23
   with a screaming motorist speeding toward it.
   And this horse, whirling through dimension
   after dimension, spiraling carmines, suicidal
   jasmines, and mathematical theorems tornadoing
   past it, being placed in situation
   after situation—what had it learned
   when all was said and done and it was back
   at Tom Wallace’s farm? Nothing is better
   than Rachel Wallace while they stand in the barn
   in the middle of February and she draws pictures of it
   to take to school tomorrow.

From Standing in Line for the Beast by Jason  Bredle (New Issues Press, 2007).

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