Phonemes

Any of the distinct units of sound that distinguish one word from another.

+ Oxford English Dictionary

/u/

This accrual of difference is mutual: each debut of air and tongue: a pursuit of balance. We eschew the brute appraisal. Caper and care, exclusive and imbued with our own slow boundaries. Quick limbs protruding: we bank domestic and denuded. What little there is to misconstrue, but for the arc of breath. Pre-empted conclusion, its sound and sweet parcel of time, wanted, blued.

/e/

We risk its spasm-jeté: love: its get tectonic and gravity-bent. And its touch unravels each promise-net. And we sweat the space of it: each silence pet, bled. Our liberties hold bygones closer than their threat, so we feel hope to beget hope: measure our bodies against the pleasure of each pressure: break and test its electricity ‘til no violence is left.

/aI/

A pack of hearts, blighted: un-mendable: is a series of sleights no trapdoor, mirror or other organ can right: baiting reason, their selves trans-mute each site. A mind of lust and sell-by dates: a pack of hearts does not know bright but to see it through: what’s left of its why: gone grace: to side!

* This piece is the first stage of a current collaboration with NYC-based composer Joseph Di Ponio.