Ivan Argüelles



time's (wo)man of the century
:
:
:

passion to "know   archaic and longing
(vedic      homeric         "thing"
as vision   aries   the killers   draped in  smog
pinkish flares before temple of  Eos  rosey
fingered  then diluted   some  cream   tartar
devasted head first into   inky bathed in
spume flecked naked skinned Aphro Dite
comic flick fur sion    the dark boat man
swain charon's lodging Hyde Park    ca. 1967
a face charred for stubble   atrox  lime   presi
dent carter in peace train to mesopotamia a
later invigorated    in photos shown under sedge
it might sound corny both the   male and the
female incorp   "thing"  intrusion of delta  lies
epoxy   but the  banality  pushed over  the her
brazen  greaves   lain face down the "many"
who   attest to the antiquity of the con cept
verses in exact similitude  -tactically torn
from her   the roots aerated  rose   thorn
blood of the air (?)  levelled    revealed th'
inner thigh down which   white stuff trail
s   viscous and acid decorated parts of the wind
banners of sperm   traced   neon   fog
in neo swing-  speak dis assembled trunk and
parts flown unknown  in the dark the raining
still harder in memory effacing    vedic a
hesiod standing on the rim of a great metal
with tongs and delta aim s to die at last
hymns to the mmm   could melt yr heart
on the left delta of the great atlantique marge
swamp   suction s a mass of flame rouge poudre
henry ford naked to the nub with karen carpenter
swinish banquet of smog and rust   her thin ish
lapels torn from human endeavor and   parts
I cant locate the  "cli max"  rubbings in chinese
ink spoil around the throttle her   ease  pulps
dumped in poultice   far from the perfect entity
has death ever the Man of the Century?
multiple orgasms with lipstick tracings in
footnote s   city of "angeles"  town w/o pity
"stink finger"      level of sub sistence
intelli gence at a premium  "the" archaic
flame powder point in exile  the first thought
s   about "you"   're an angel undressed
for the kill and unconscious rubbed   as I
know what to suffer loss pointed a hell
ribbons of sapphic "blood" wound intricately
around her "verse"  !  (vedic strophe with waist
wrap around sun gear like skin ready to deposit
oiled for super charge and in flamed ah her
uh buttocks throttle emergency dive into gesta
romanorum etc) 're an angel on juke box deli
very to stairs seek exit no solution
who was that "sound"? ground zero syntax
below niente   keys a photo of revery decade's
old by now as swamp progresses into third mille
nium with presidents also joined by nixon and
reagan brainless squatting in santa barbara sun
glyph opaque as all   is   map with little "dots"
the larger one s signify settlements of over
10 million inhabitants  planet rocks with
near teotihuacan a semblance of a god brushing
ash into revolver and downing 17th beer
of the so called afternoon meridian fonts sink
below eye s lidded with  "the fear"
cata strophic illu sory em phasis on ac cent
pro paroxy tonic   as if that "mattered" video
tape lies in a mental solvent tinged (p)ink y
-fulgence
textually  matters  "are"
embroglio capsizes tomb ere foot hit s fleet
-dition of a man in hermetic iosis
plant struct ure s matter im posed  lex salica?
hyphenated rendition of sophocles on roof top
drug of choice smashes halter hammer loves
pavement for stretches of an inch at five thousand
mm per nano whateve r dis charge fulminant in
hera discord   white arms branching rage is dope
swindle in shop window cast iron hit
[president bush in hunkering CIA overdrive]
legionnaire's disease  gulf war "syndrome"
chromeplate headache with double eyed slander
"cher" sings it "all" from sonny to disco
as fix ed a sphere in mulitple helix dizzy
as verberations myopic slum is feet
away from ultimate dis aster (president coolidge
hermaphrodite in ford motor plant) as tentacles
deities super imposition catalog records shredded
with interpol text code frame   in italian
it's berlitz for lunar avatar   chunks  slammed  aero liths
16,101 brides to say the least in lotus leaf
warp szyzygy chinese oven implant silcone deaf?
death   crys tal as fear leads  the "way"
symposion drinking bout in post-modernist
with hemlock steering wheel and   perSephone
glide vowel  succombs to
who takes half as much as that let "them" all
be dead   dix phobia sonnet phhh
doesn't matter much to "be"   at all a
thin line between mascara and   masque
of the vermillion variety   dumped into pool
teeming with piranha
the white white   bones in a juke oriented
box tangled sloped down to   hem Iine stich
im ponderable s   who cannot be "literate"
their gengivitis and aching slop swallows
for a television slot her breasts bared at least
5 lbs each firm and    musk a darkened ravening
have nothing more to do with that    than a can
really matters shoved head through plate glass
the size of a canteloupe I'd say and sweeter
definitions in biblical terms rather on the dark
fray and stuff viscous trailing down a cant talk
right now     white ooze kind a   in delicate
to say the least mother underground or an ashpit
swarms of
(heaven was a japanese girlfriend










beds time its corsse
in old englishe
freeze frame droppe
slots in liquor
parking lot gang
rape is hesiod's theo
gony (merveille!
tops less her halts
me thinks jejeune
her bra is lace felt
bitter thanks to
think feel s so
ghoul antics frake
bites hand s(warms)
skin crawlzz just
izznt it? aitch ("h")
in front al posi
tion a until she a shud
ders in camera's
blink a tragedy goes
under "singing"
which was the radio
you were sewing
to yr cigarette "that"
day in hell    in
fernal robotizing
commands dis junct
principals I will
not read any more
between the brackets
upended and damned
all the same with
wisps of hair blown
across summer's
fleecy mead whitening
was her hair
caught in a vise?
was her wrists slot
in the jamb?
as a very sinking
con cussion to rev
ery I drain all dis
missal from purpose
adjacent to praxis
ol' play time wands
is wall a word?
in dis vincible
lexico maniac
between just a shovel
-ed tween her axis
grinding over the
griddle frizzle sluts
shh ungh hoax is
eminence fray slips
jaxt a plus a few iver
drain scup thunk
! (I was visible
but now I'm damned)
it is very a play
on her words to
wards each skin
I time the pulse
and it back "fires"
into some other dense
time zone of green
g\haze and the dead
guitars somnolent
dr-  if I could her
eyes dis play a very
death of distance
and I am not with
the others no longer
an idiom but an in
firm dia lect chosen
for rep resent
the little ones around
the hour's edge
pinkish and dotted
with mercurichrome
houses silence wax
her tender was it real?
distance is dealt a
fix chure gloss
each word is meant
the other to seem
feeling like "that"
how can one pray?
busy with making "x"'s
she checked out
past mid riff a
school of vedanta
at the finger stip
choirs of enunciating
angels with floss
her death was next
to the aile with aspirin
pitted against the
headline red with
absence so hurt
I was mouthed down
and spent a line
"dear claire    "
holo caust ver sion
to be re lated brai
lle epi sode with
bible in downs syn
drome the hipp o
"forever my darling'
will always be
true   ?  -ank
best to wane
-bide   a verb means
process either trans
or intransigent
as in "to cross"
what river that
is so deep a

if mand is a
con mposite
her thinking
is a ripple in
jails of water
were we slidin
g sways a cho
sen taph
over a head
to punct your
sky is a void
glistening a
sounds a lot
like a drone
box voice s
over each dub
threads mike
gilding either
sewing smoke
into the eyelids
until passion
is redounds
her a flicking
ash skirts draft
likens white
to the echo
effect hair
makes in ice
then d[r]owns
hap re cord
spin shift
tomb
mu s
ic










as an example
let's forth
goes to horizon
and dis appear s    how far can we go ???
pressure is "on"
when symbols  fail
tank goddess with "top"   sails
frim glorious   whey
-izes inter section ed
let all the air out and started
over "again"
meadows
hollow
vertiginous   green
aches   in the right
-sphere  places
oriental design in overt
syllables lapse
foment origins as if
to speak is writing
a legend it was I then
fortaste of heaven illu
sions patterned after
fake orgasm
little dis synchronous
licit or wardrobe
her was so "beauti
when a random hittite
arrow hit the plexus
marginalized and de
construct poetic
ized level s after
one another opened
rife with epic "struggle"
the hero at his center the
"s" in a forward position
to reify the event was
only to acrobat
fiction s pululating
what they are "dreaming"
and too cerebral the vol
uminous co respon
sive to where we live
hesions and ad dress
to my former "wife"
blanch little thing
with bee hive
and a record player acti
symbolic of the clouds
her eyes just "went"
astray "making out"
flies hard into wall white
less a phobic than a sound
-glutinative and phenated
dresden in flames dis
connect the version
a labial reality "only"
for and against to which I
play with me "annie"
flexible nemes register
on the low for a cordant
fission followed
by red red and outer
whitest space blackens
at the hour
of this thought
re recorded through
sympathy  a ghast
pale of shades bleak
hearse tolling fings
chess angle who will
reading this in reverse
the tubercular century
closing its last at
ends either corridor hap
stitch is she?
meridians  (sicily)
agathos kai
kallos (byzant pho
spit thicken sh a
bodies in the maze
eyes that shine with inner
scene in a mirror
seneca agathos
has what she de serves
-ant hand in with muff
collaborated  a think
s o wild spoiled my
imagination a kiss flex
routine dispense as after
falls fading voices behind
walls murmur leafage
greying a s a who?
mail a with stamp
francobollo -/ is
frozen "the song" a
idyll sequence rivers
blackened wade
toward waist deep
a book each page
ex cision sat at lunch
comfited to "know"
radio echolalia gag
blank as ages part
the "article" and its
"other'  her face a whip
lash effect doubled
over and sent the enemy
flying into the next
canto muse I sing
geminated consonant
middle with break down
"prakrits" apa bhramsa
toltec medals bloody
is fusion   ?
ritual incision and yel
ling at alba the crows
flew(n) as language
-bacy windows later
in a region best des trayed
as "secundo" viti
ates aetas sedecim
as when whim took dimpled
a fray on the piano
seconds to none her
-latio was it? a course
in early dinner greek
dripping from the mirth
lips akimbo a darker
night whets its pane
see through skin
peeled back to show
the cadaver a gesture muted
simple for its prose
both thumbs grieving
as skews top balance
to shiver into a s frag
ments a rose in its shards
petal borne into blossom
in firmit ies infinite
as I lay me down at arm
s a frieze delight in
verse reliques mayflies winged
ailes? shudders (click)
ghost mountain in re verse
-rbal testimony as only
sound grasses part for red
her sole is a foot in th'
air heaves musk dense th'
groves abundant her clings
to memory a palace of a
bodies in the maze (sum
mer 's a bandon death)
will quest  a remnant de
livers bone to part hails
wind fragrance saffron yell
ow is to pale what spirit
is to lead the anti nomy
per fume d'oro tens
brace of as bed leans to
headlands winding sable
quilted patches night scores
for oboe and continuo
hands that ply the tissue
in divisible in visible
had thought to  moans
saragasso in her head
shiftess color of sand
parched sleep offer s no
-lution renders nill the
bright lining in the lids
a offered the a link
supports the grammatical
tension from centuries of
decay wasted on the single
tone bell like ringing
until exhausted the moon
bringing with it years of flesh
feminine in distinction for
ivory stained with nicotine
probably the wisdom to defer
quietly a passage about
in the footnotes where sperm
no, women don't
attitudes of robe the colum
bine tightening around the sign
ature in key of delta
you are the "key"
she froze despite the rhythm
a "sex" beat on the drums
tom tom conga mambo hunh
wailing a ghost spoo-
weed in tufts a rather
each thigh marked with
a broad swath crimson in height
and inches smooth in the ear
who will speak to these a
"claims" the harbor listing
by number of century the names
of the eradicated from either
behind the verso a title
errant with crests of topaze
earning gold as days set
into years on the wharf
making up for decades of silver
enchanted as rust is to believe
will you come with me?
hittite "letters" aztec in chimes
chinese in tongs wider
in split between oceans' fray
grim // tomb ridden acetate
from afar spied the caravel
the girls would shriek a little
joy is a frequency wave modu
ancient as the wood where
tristan bleeding a thought
white shrouds a willow switch
initials carved on buttocks
rinds of a sweet fruit
like pomegranate her mouth
soothing as he "fell"
ulysses   his homer on the hill
hour when silvery shadows
the leaves begin to "speak"
telling of ornate matters
buffer    in absence I break
will you   /   ?

who take too cerebral
water is to be sectioned
the platt of air is "cool"
as a lozenge of mint
in the god's mouth
if we can come to know "that"
become undivided
once and forever
without the web's past
nor the doctor's future
verb tense system down
cries in her ingle the
inner shining in the "eyes"
light scope distance
accent on the penultimate
shakes a thing slopes
zed the last hearse fled
her was a
a palace her corpus
distinctions blurred the no
race no family no caste
the cloth had nothing on it
the picture of air was crystallized
a notion of the remote
we are to become undivided
I hear "their" voices
somewhere in a book
it is a childhood
that we never "were"
footsteps on a lawn
sky a
"holy"
you will not wonder?
void ed   of thought the mind
speed as pure as
when will the  wrack
beyond any kind of orient
white whiter blank bleached
skin pulls at its night
the drapery constellated
e ffusions of wild lights
a spectacle over the "water"s
the brochure describes
ten kinds of a sprinkled
the massive flanks bleeding
against the porphyry column
plan in order to go to lunch
the proper stranger sex
they are struggling up hill
in groups of sleep
d e s ire in the nerve
what makes it go the im pulsion
sweep s the field
property attracting the
roaring sees only red
the god on his cigarette
aimed at the positions in trees
faded slowly the work
I never summoned
a buddha lifting a  finger
a "figure"   ?
whisk broom  umbrella
lips chapped from indecent
congress hovered
the inevitable
excited by all she "saw"
houses razed in a stroke
up to three thousand of them
a rain of fiery hail
as predicted 500 years before
lantern in the maze
ab solved no thing
the bank teller's vacant "stare"
has seen Circe in her adobe
crawling like a snake with lust
the mockery
oranges turned bitter the
caustic her lip split
fringes of a cosmetic
like heaven in a second
"gone"   we are
worn like a glove on her soul
tree s   stone a
thought glazed
"love"
was
as chalk dust
not the    glow
horizons ago

s h a t t e r e d

absymal
re actions slivers
finer than mist ab
rasive  zones a
motion at a still
systems destroyed
a








e-mail the poet at iarguell@library.berkeley.edu
info on the writer
to go back to the home page