Friday 10 August 2012

Rich Murphy


Police Convention


Eyes and ears locate and identify
misbehavior and apply
the appropriate institution.
Drones tag with labels rebellion
in the spleen or with arms.
If not video cameras, then the sleeping
commuter taking the subway
should prompt docile but capable
from the punk with the spray paint.
The slums fill with artwork
desperate to speak to Justine.
Family, schools, police service
the greater and lesser states
with pillowcases filled with oranges,
knuckle measurements,
and solitary refinement.
Probes prod the less-than or more-than
for the hinges along the backbone.
The training wheels stay on
so the do-it-yourself kits
won’t need to kick in.
The mantras for every sense
don’t distract but erase perspective
and focus envy on goods and services.
Any way among the matrix
leads to the dream that runs amuck.


Rich Murphy's first book was The Apple in the Monkey Tree (Codhill Press). His second book Voyeur was published in 2009 (Award Winner 2008, Gival Press). His chapbooks include Family Secret (Finishing Line Press), Hunting and Pecking (Ahadada Books), Phoems for Mobile Vices (BlazeVox), Rescue Lines (Right Hand Pointing) and Great Grandfather (Pudding House Publications). Recent poetry may be found in Pennsylvania Review, Fjord Review, Otoliths, Epiphany, Euphony, The Straddler, James Dickey Review, and Trespass. Recent prose scholarship on poetics has been published in Imaginary Syllabus, Anthology chapters, Palm Press, Journal of the Assembly for Expanded Perspectives on Learning, The International Journal of the Humanities, Fringe Magazine, Reconfigurations: A Journal of Poetry and Poetics, The Journal of Ecocriticism, Folly Magazine, Imaginary Syllabus, and “Reading Wisdoms: Mick Jagger, W.B.Yeats, and Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak” will be published by New Writing: The International Journal for the Practice and Theory of Creative Writing.