The Secret Meaning of Night
My own bridge. No
destination. Stone
river. Going across
as a reflex. Rage
is not. My ride.
Straight up. Through
time. My worry.
Forget my story.
Useless. L.A. I
die for. And
the name? Simple,
in my sleep. Arrow
of care, as motion.
In time. Last December.
Baby, ask me: “how
low is the ocean?”
Stormy. Weather.
I speak: raze.
Of graceless. Light.
Rubato jitter. I
speak: straight
- Old man.
Marooned. In
his memory.
Simple.
Sad cough. Finds
- Snarled. Inside
time. Last December?
Ask me: What?
Love? Baby,
ask me: “how high
is the sea? ”
Obligation
of joy. I
speak. Flight.
Fracture pours
from. Simple.
Arrow of care
as absolution.
La Brea. Forget
my worry. Story.
Stone river. Going
across as a reflex.
My own bridge.
Over rue.
Passing into.
Last December.
My ride. Baby,
in my sleep.
Simple. Stormy.
Weather. Stranded,
in memory.
I speak:
What Love.
Bio: John Sullivan has received awards including: “Jack Kerouac Literary Prize,” “Writers Voice: New Voices of the West,” AZ Arts fellowships, Artists Studio Center fellowship (Johnson VT), and a WESTAF fellowship. He was featured at Denver’s Summer Play Festival, and received a fellowship to the Eco-Arts Performance Workshop at the University of Oregon. He was Artistic-Producing Director of Theater Degree Zero (Tucson / Bisbee AZ), an artists collaborative that produced several devised theatre pieces and various iterations of the Bisbee Poetry Festival. He later directed the applied theatre wing of Seattle Public Theater, and collaborated with Amnesty International Group #23 (Houston TX) in theatre-based projects on the death penalty in Texas, and torture throughout the world. He now works with environmental networks in the Southwest and Deep South using Augusto Boal’s Theatre of the Oppressed to promote advocacy and expand dialogue on environmental justice, environmental global health and health care access issues.
