Art No Hands
for Fred D’Aguiar

poetry, another body function
like every other art
instead of done with hands
must be accomplished
by the body’s automatic muscles
like those responsible for digestion,
urine, feces
sweating, menstruation,
lungs breathing, heart beating
process of reproduction
between conception and giving birth
all occurring without our control
without our being able
to hold the strings
or pull the strings of these processes
bodily functions which are for me,
most like making or participating
in poetry
are salivation and ejaculation
poetry similarly overflowing,
triggered off
by some unbearable sensation
and out oozes poetry
not unlike sweat, springing, surfacing
pores all over us to ooze out of
art results from a way of life
the mist is the excess
the distilation process
like odors sweet or sour or otherwise
not unlike the smell of cherries, dillies
hog plums
or cabbages or tomatoes rotting


© Obediah Michael Smith, 2007
12:01 a.m. 30/10/07