Friday, 17 January 2025

Five Poems by Ben Chase

 





  1. Sleep 

 

 

We infect each other  

with sleep. 

 

Our lazy 

spines and fingers twine. 

 

My own face 

chewed leather by comparison 

 

inhales you: 

dewy like skimmed butter. 

 

The first  

dream figure is 

 

leading me  

somewhere I dont want to go. 

 

Not that you mind: 

so still besides me.


   

 

 

The Many Stages of a Black Hole [or the singularity is lame]

 

 

contains language from Andrew Hamilton at the University of Colorado 

for Pomme Koch 

 

 

The relativistic jet aroused me most. 

Near and mid lenses conspired to refract 

back to us an image of every experience.  

 

What promise! 

A struggle, a wound. 

I see you, yes. 

 

The event horizon  

was the  

old desire  

to be known: 

 

Bermuda with my man—  

You guys dont know, but my sister is a rape survivor 

Dog! 

 

I did my part: 

Dealt out copium to recent refugees  

by explaining what a simp was. 

 

We never solidified the math 

for infinite density 

before more bodies piled in 

 

to take the superluminal trip. 

And who could blame them? 

Expansion requires heat after all. 

 

Plus the infall  

was so painless 

we called it  

theft. 

 

(And, personally, Im so fucking stupid, I was grateful to be reminded 

the deconstructed blazer in my abandoned cart was back on sale.) 

 

The tearing region was where 

chunks truly started flying off. 

Not small things like privacy either; 

bigger ones like meaning. 

 

Our compressed mass altered time: 

the flick of a fingertip scroll now  

occupied the length of the universe. 

 

If I dont instantly get what you think, cmon man, what use are you anyway? 

 

But 

the inner horizon…  

 

was awe inspiring. 

 

A burst of light, all history 

infinitely speeded up, 

atoms broke apart irradiated. 

 

(No one tells you  

how exhilarating that separation is.)  

 

Turns out that all the way down ontology and advertisement blend:  

Thoughtful? (job seeking) 

Furious? (job seeking) 

Terrified? (job seeking) 

In love? (desirable and job seeking) 

 

Even the old standbys, the visceral stuff, like murder or cum for instance,  

hoped to build fanbases large enough to one day justify a book or product line. 

 

The last remaining natural law  

was never admitting 

you didnt know: 

 

Growing up in Iowa demands I align with 

airbrush fail, pig 

Dear friends and family, our sweet girl has cancer again. 

 

Whether we are Plancks star: 

the tightest possible volume, 

chunky like a speed bump; 

or curved geodesics, 

too close together to tell apart; 

 

our mass is forever less than our nucleus. 

 

The singularity 

was a real let down. 

Frankly. 

God is a t-shirt store.




 

The Soap Opera Effect

 

 

anger  

washes off 

calcified 

crunchy as a shrimp tail 

could just've easily clipped 

a toe. 

fleshy water 

interpolated with an extra frame  

of something:  

awareness  

or 

sadness perhaps 

reminds of a specious  

digital effect  

on television:  

the Soap Opera Effect. 

a simple idea really  

that 

reality 

is more believable  

sped 

up 

a 

little 

bit 

O my  

the clarity  

it offers to the minor  

tangle 

of dark hair  

floating 

by the drain: 

dark and ferrous like  

iron ore shavings 

tomorrow  

is papered by mantras 

folded over and over   

lift this flap:  

the dialectic is the key to maturity 

lift again:  

all your healing is inside your own images. 

but 

once Im dry 

the 

glut  

takes me back to team dinners at  

Cracker Barrel: 

wed add 

every condiment on the table  

to a Coke  

then dare each other to drink.




 

Cats Cradle

 

 

1. to get started wrap the string around each wrist once 

like a handcuff. 

 

2. Spread your hands and the string  

is now an infinity loop: 

 

3. There should be a stitch from end to end. 

 

4. Bring one finger inside to gather 

a stitch and cross it. 

 

5. This is the Cats Cradle. 

 

6. To play: Ill dip my hand 

inside the pattern you hold, 

 

7. well share the string  

briefly 

 

8. then Ill use my position to swing 

the cuffs from your wrists to mine. 

 

9. Your tension becomes mine. 

 

10. We can keep passing it, 

for years, forever, if you like. 

 

11. Or 

 

12. if you get bored 

think its lame 

 

13. get married or divorced or grief stricken 

broke, angry, unforgiving, impossibly rich 

 

14. you can walk away. 

 

15. No big thing required.  

 

16. Except Ill keep the cradle open, 

thinking the game unfinished. 

 

17. Or 

 

18. I wont. 

 

19. Ill lay the string down, 

straighten it  

for other uses. 

 

20. Like mending clothes  

or binding herbs 

 

21. and be relieved for it.


 

 

 

The Great Violence

 

 

We lob in plastic garlic,  

  tomato bombs, cerise like fireball gobstoppers,  

bounce past hamburger buns  

  harder than hockey pucks 

rattling next to impossibly small ears of corn. 

 

  When we get to the tunafish cans, 

I remove the play-doh lid to reveal a space  

  perfect for storing treasures. 

Since our game is more premonition than fantasy; 

 

  Since the fuzzy fear buzzing me is less fabulous 

than when I prepare myself in daydreams 

  to fight a bear who got into our walk up, 

will I wish when it comesthe Great Violence 

 

  wed made a side gig in baguettes? 

A blockchain with an indisputable ledger  

  for water consumption? 

Instead of pitching hot dogs to mallards, 

  should we have been stuffing it  

beneath the mattresses like gold bullion? 

  Reburying underripe potatoes and stashing 

mature orange carrots in the air conditioning vents? 

 

  When I crawl through topsoil 

choking under four inches of dust, 

 gurgling open taps will harken our original sin. 

Failing to sleep in punishing, stale heat 

 Ill ask: how could I have walked away, O Nature? 

   

  Except that there was so much to attend to: 

full diapers and money needs, thoughts 

  which never stopped.  

You can understand that, cant you?   

  Cant you? 

 

In the pin hole sized life left behind 

  by Earths reposession of all, Ill finally hear 

Nature whisper back: 

 

  I warned you.  I was warning you the whole time.





Ben Chase is an actor and poet living in New York City. He is most recognizable from his years on Law and Order: Organized Crime and The Thing About Pam. He’ll next be seen in Kathryn Bigelow’s new film for Netflix. Poetry has appeared in Gulf Coast Journal, Milk Book Press, NY Poetry Society, Grey Sparrow Journal. He has a wife and two sons.

   

 

 

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