When I Am the Most Person
It happens when I am cutting apples
Or when beneath some soft light
I do not have a name
Usually I feel really dumb and golden
That’s part of it
An implausible rationale for not being defeated
Then the indifferent tarmac
Meanwhile a note is left on the bushes
“Sorry 4 stopping by so late”
It is falling apart with the agony of hope!
The shape that makes the least sense
A chord or a berry
Maybe popcorn!
I do not understand what is due and what is paid for
Eventually we must give in
Let joy arrive like a small cup of soup
With an entire country of sun on my back
I don’t know what to say
There is a mantis-face my man-face protects
Walking through congressional districts
One must pass with care
Against ricocheted mountain light
Your bed is not full of sacrifice
You are groomed by the horse head of fear
In front of all these people
The sacred parts of ourselves cannot be kept away from
So that’s when it happens
A very pronounced glimmer
Pigeons over the sea like
There are tiny airports everywhere
from Outside in the Aporia Days
III. The War
The Proclamation of 1763
The Golden Bull of Sicily
The Peace of Thorn
The Second Peace of Thorn
The Compromise of 1850
The Convention of Moss
The Treaty of Gandamak
The Treaty of Paris
The Treaty of Bucharest
The Treaty of the Dardanelles
The Treaty of Nagyváyard
The Treaty of Fort Industry
The Treaty of Al Arish
The Treaty of Hopewell
The Treaty of Constantinople
The Secret Treaty of Dover
The Treaty of Bärwalde
The Return of the Jedi
The Treaty of Saragossa
The Treaty of Perpetual Peace
The Outer Space Treaty
The Tariff of Abominations
The Planet of the Apes
The Battle of Gettysburg
The Agents of Anarchy
The Dark Side of the Moon
The Kingdom of God is Within You
The Great Adventures of Slick Rick
The Report on the Construction of Situations
The Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Guadalajara
The President of the United States of America
The Collected Poems of Federico García Lorca
The Sound of Music
The Accident of Art
biography
NICK STURM is the author of How We Light, from H_NGM_N BKS, as well as a number of chapbooks including, with Wendy Xu, I Was Not Even Born (Coconut) and, with Carrie Lorig, Labor Day (Forklift, Ohio) and Nancy and The Dutch (NAP), an erasure of paperback biographies of Ronald and Nancy Reagan. He is co-curator of Dear Marge, Hello, a reading series in Tallahassee, Florida.