Perfect Mask

after Tristan Tzara

like the perfect mask of death

forthward wine heart

monitored offchart cracks

not her type of adversarial

clap, the pill is  rejected

gifts of the meat of foot-and-mouth

syndrome. tie the trousers 

down  live in a well-lit hole

Cover

and mind your heads

like the night your heart

pushes away from the ice

calls for me to deliver

your yogurt, your sorrow

enough to charge the house

---

The Direction Holding Wiry

This stage holds a tree

straight with wires

wrapped round

“drunk with nectar”

assorted with paper fruit

You and the ceiling

wheels bound with

the oily mouth

offering motor and crash

where this street folds in

Connor Stratman is the author of four collections of poetry: An Early Scratch (erbacce-press, 2011), Some Were Awake (Plumberries Press, 2011), Volcano (Writing Knights Press, 2011) and Invisible Entrances (erbacce-press, 2010). He is currently living in Chicago, where he is completing his MA at Loyola University Chicago.