Tammer Nassiff


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  • poetry

poetry


Runner
Check, runner
Peril in the streets as
Sun whafts in your face,
Potent this month, just
As summer recognizes in itself
A great deal of wariness
To the lot of you and
In a quiet and political way
Elects to retire this season and
Move on

What remains puckers your eyes

By Night, in Rio
An important woman straddles the
cloth debonair. She uses her
bamboo fingers to move the
wet hair from his eyes.
Above, in the loft, angels tune
their violas and piccolos to minor
scales, and toil away at a piece
by Messiaen. A red-eye flight
shreds through the orchestra,
kills first chair. Sick clouds with booming coughs
and sheet music strewn about. All of
this to say, the roads will be
backed up again. Below a leper,
peddler, hugs a corner. Tonight he’s pushing
nothing, selling to nobody. He leans
in a shadow and just observes, fixates
on each passing ass. Dreams of
fishing trips with his grandfather.
The air in the apartment is wet, so
much so, the woman’s shirt clings
to the folds of her skin. He slides
two fingers, then his whole hand
under the heat. Buildings (the first
and only time travelers) relax and
groan in relief. Their pleasure is important,
heavy. The night is heavy. In
a short time the many cranes of the
city will be woken up. Progress
           never ceases, only takes
short rests. In similar fashion, a rogue
porter, lulled by the angels,
turns in his sleep. Boots already
laced, there’s two things to be
delivered. A plastic bag filled with
the ocean, and a videotape.
In the film she reveals a soft
underbelly beneath her veneer. It is
a burning love that
envelops her companion. He
decides that he would still like to be
here, smothered, even if he wasn’t
being paid to do so. He’d still enjoy
the city contract or not. The lagoa, the
clay ground. Tonight’s warmth and the
tremolo of tomorrow’s dawn
approaching. A breeze enters through the
window, and cools the now still
sheets. For all the money in the world,
here is a good place to be; or for none of it
                       the same.


Heaven Sent
When the power cut, and
Our house lights went,
We didn’t even notice,
        ‘Cause our love was
        Heaven sent, Heaven sent.

And it rained for a week straight!
Biblically drenched,
Hardly did we wet, for this,
        Our love was
        Heaven sent, Heaven sent.

Oh and when the deluge hushed
So the sun could scream hot!
By God we aint stop,
        ‘Cause our love was
        Heaven sent, Heaven sent.

And bleak as it was
Food spoiled, shadowy men,
No espionage wrecked our den,
        Our love was
        Heaven sent, Heaven sent.

Funny how, just yesterday,
Passing through a crowd-
Once again, there, your scent.
        Ahhh, just for now,
        Heaven sent, Heaven scent.

Kids These Days
Lacking a concept of mortality
    the youth learn pathology from
    digital tomes. Not dissimilar to
    Buddhist rebirth, since code can always
    end with a ‘loop’ syntax. This
    results in a forever mentality. There is an
    indifference to the consequences of life.
Finally, the perfect soldier!
Like damp clothes they fold on the wire.
Weighted, collapsed. So heavy their burden.
There’s no good
    music on the radio these days.

dog leg  
yeah

okay okay

I can beg. I will

beg for dog leg

humping and

 oh, you're so like

 rising yeast

 doughy and white.

I need to

 beg beg
 leg hump

 dog drools
    oh... oh!!
kiss me doldrums!

My own private war
you can't smell it
but i'm burning a
hole through your
hair.

wouldn't ya know,
i've just launched
an assault on your being.

Sam Hill! I'm manning
the artillery against your sensibilities.

at last! your plum, all mine.

Poem for a waitress
In a small voice, ask me,
will this bout, how you spin it,
17,000 odd steps, neck craned, brow furrowed.
Today, warmth like a cooling stove
top, an embarrassing depression.

What’s worse would be an empathetic
feeling towards soldiers.
This day, any actualization will
surely flower results most  saccharine.

Bobby, teacher
We love Bobby. He’s getting so
emotional. A student, his, tried vocal
scatting for the first time, and to some success. It just struck him.
Tears slipped down either side of 
his wide smile. He was blubbery and
red. Full of love and ambivalence
for the sound.

After the work day
White noise brushed the
walls inbetween syncopated clicks
of her aubergine heels against the wood
floor. Everyone was aware of the metronome, 
although their backs remained turned. 
‘If I pricked your stomach with a finger
would your words be more articulate?’ 
‘If I squeeze your breasts with my pincers
would dust escape?’
Too much sex will be had with
wedding bands still on.

Love Quest
Seeking a university girl,
my nerves like fishing wire. No
good things pass around my head,
vibrating at the frequency of 
a tuning fork. If at all, this
placidity is doing me in!
    Looking for a college gal,
    with a desparation in the
    way I type, send a text it’s
    languished verse, dripping 
    sweat like a rockslide.
    I chuck my platitidues
at dames pursuing higher education,
until pitchers arm sets in, 
and ironed pressure in the chest.
Like the world’s thinnest hand 
is laid over my heart.
    Looking for Zenobia,
    with a septum piercing.

A Haunt
Meets on Santa Clara Ave,
Under looming bone effigies, the pale
Palms and cell towers.
The bow-legged strides,
Icey slither, serpentine
cruising, call that a haunt.

A haunt down scorched Camino Del Mar.

Manhattan (or other busy city) Couples
no preamble
administered to the
gossip of a lame couple

the heart worms
for such flaccid companions
that mistake intimacy for
team building exercises
as parsing checklists,
    again, no empathy
    for the ones who optimize
   
yet still is the un-embalmed
sould that winces at the
idea. Young and viral,
    practice sex like blood letting.











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