Now we are talking about something, else we are talking, slapping
Slapping one, another slaps, another one slaps and an
Other’s leg grazes, up, ↑ towards the ceiling, a
Plaster surface upon which
Another’s leg grazes, slapping. And this athleticism, henceforth referred to as
The high top sneaker, the lower top sneaker—the shredded red
Dress pants, ripped at the seam by his hand.
And as for the new avant-garde,
And as for the new avant-gardist:
There is a garden somewhere that grows paper.
A garden, somewhere, a paper garden grows.
Claire Donato lives and writes in Brooklyn, NY. Her poems have recently appeared or are forthcoming in the Boston Review, Black Warrior Review, Fou, and Harp & Altar. She is the author of a chapbook, Someone Else’s Body (Cannibal Books 2009). Claire graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2008 and is currently completing an MFA in Literary Arts at Brown University.
One horse holds the hand and sheds his handbook.
One horse loops and drops, kicks a cylindrical pipe.
One kicks the back calf rotation. This is the shimmy-shim out.
One kicks the other kicks dull metal music. Sounds like a cylindrical pipe.
To tell the truth, a pelvic girdle leads with all its might.
The human pelvis: an object into which the neck may be inserted.
And the pelvis spirals out. This is the absence of
Hands caused by halo effect. O, the cylindrical calf,
Its spiral effect. O, living dead life,
Quench my thirst with your contrarian muscle.
Sir, quench my abdominal ways; lift my leg overhead.
And if it becomes too much liquid, I too become the dead marionette.
I become the key grip, also hung backstage.
And if you feel the urge to slap me, slap my pelvic girdle.
The hand atop the foot atop is one symbol of grief.

photo: © 2009 Jason Riker, Riker Productions
The horse dies, lifts its leg, its breastbone gripped by body suspended in space. One perceives the horse is dead, limp. One perceives the horse reborn when it works up to a rise. One does not perceive another horse dead in the space. One horse wears partial clothing.
The horse is resuscitated through a series of gestures, fingertips at odds. Filaments of shoulder muscle slap the dead horse breathing. Nothing is gripped so tight as the breath; so long the horse is on the ground the horse is dying. One perceives the horse because it dies more slowly than the world.
Or, one perceives the horse gravity. If one is alive, one is four feet on the ground, heels lifted. If one is half-alive, one is limp, suspended in space. If one is dying, one writhes, writhing often referred to as spiraling out. Dead, the horse creeps up behind the living, falls.
But one does not fall upon dying. Half-alive, the horse lifts its eyes extend its fingers finger out extend to hold out a bouquet of roses. Half-alive the horse’s fingers branch outward like claws.
Or, the horse is half-alive, back folded, hands behind the head in prayer. One perceives the horse’s hands are folded prayer because the horse is already dying, this half-alive horse, and its dying causes a string of pearls across its mane. A pearl is signifier, half-dead horse, signal of something. Half-dead horse alive to say the horse is living. One perceives the half-horse half-alive, choking itself as to say.
Or, one perceives the horse as limp. Hunched over, a string of pearls tangle the mane the horse gallops. In place rubbing breath on its body, hoof in one clean wide line. The other hoof is resisting weeping. O string of pearls, O half-horse, limp dead with air then come alive. O half-dead horse dance with nothing, kneel on the floor with two knees. O do your hooves take on the form of hands?

photo: © 2009 Jason Riker, Riker Productions
If the only entry point is animal.
If the only entry point is animal is dog on the ground is harpoon.
If the only entry point is animal is dog on the ground is harpoon then this is dead narwhal then these are two grips.
Then these are two fists are maracas.
This is a wide-open sound, held as to knot.
And this is the regal gorilla performing its solo, a series of figure eight gestures with one grand finale.
Each day at The Intimacies Project, Bill Hayward invites visitors to participate in collaborative portraits. As part of The American Memory Project, the resulting photographs document connections between strangers. Collaborators are given paper, paint, and permission to explore their relationships and attitudes. For more information, go to http://www.billhayward.com.





photo: © 2009 Jason Riker, Riker Productions
This is playing dead in someone’s arms, spiraling on one’s knees.
This is a series of moves. From every slat on the floor, arms outstretched clasp elbows.
This is how to mount one’s breastbone, static for a very long time.
Back to back with lean leg muscle, this is intertwining joints.
This is a series of poses called “balancing one’s calves atop abdominal muscles.”
And this is the extension of four arms. This is two hands clasping.
*
Foot rest on thigh muscle.
Foot rest on back muscle.
Foot rest on black floor.
*
This is backwards into someone else’s hamstring.
Now, a solo performance. Dirty from the room’s black floor.
Now one arm behind the neck then motion.
Some distance by contracting muscles clean wide line.
Pressing one’s hand through the ceiling.
Pressing one’s hand through the breath-colored box.
*
Mime pressing hand through invisible box.
Mime trembling floor with string of pearls.
Mime in white slip extending string of pearls.
Mime choking itself. Mime ties its wrists together.
Mime seduces left leg posing.
Mime pointed one foot tracing circles on black floor.
Mime beneath black curtain.
Mime flying extension with one wrist outstretched.
*
Dancing with dead face.
Dancing already dead.
Corpse in a music box.
*
Image of clean wide line extending toward ceiling.
Image pooling down from hair pooling down from cheekbone.
Image of two circular chapels, one clean wide line.
One clean wide line up ninety degrees.
Uncertainty
1.
Back up a little more. Drop your paper where
it was. Where you had it before. What I would do
I would flip it around. Spread your feet a little
more. Don’t blink. Hook your thumb in your
pants. Don’t blink. Spread your feet
a little more. Drop that paper. Stay right there
don’t blink drop your head drop your paper
a little bit flatter. Change
your arm position here. Spread your feet
a little more. Lean more
towards me. Lean straight
into me. Cross your
arms. Pull down your shirt. That’s more
chin up, don’t
blink. Drop the hand with paper down
don’t blink. Try the head
the other way a little. Drop your chin
spread your feet a little
more. Lean over your shoulder towards
me a little bit. Tilt your head
that way now.
Turn the other way and
try. Let the paper hang straight
down. Come back straight back
around. Don’t move
grab the paper. We can’t read it. Fix your shirt tilt
head a little more apart. Don’t
blink. Chin up a little. I need to find
something this camera wants to focus on.

photo: © 2009 Bill Hayward
2.
I’ve got gray, black, and white.
I’m on the top center point
close to the skin and the gray.
Move your hand.
Head straight up and down, chin up
a touch. Move your hand, let me
see a little finger. Break at the waist
towards me. Now
hold it, head
tilted. Relax a second looking
at the camera. Or
the paper wrapped around
her leg. Flat like that. Ninety
degrees. That looks a little too
opposite. You can barely
read what’s written.
[…]

“I was trying to feel uncertain.”
Uncertainty
Pull your shirt down. Chin up. Cock your head to one side
or another. Come around a little. Shirt down. Hand on
your hips. Do you have pockets. Drop that hand
down. Walk around a second loosen
up. It’s not a smile word. It’s not serious
or matter-of-fact. What’s that. More
matter-of-fact again. Chin up
a hair again. It’s all about questioning
here. Let me try to act like I feel it.

photo: © 2009 Jason Riker, Riker Productions
One hovers at bent angle near the room’s black wall.
Two spin the same this is clone torpedo.
One holds the other back spins. Out toward the room’s black wall.
One pirouettes the curve also the room’s back wall.
Spinning legs tandem. Meet at the middle rest
Over the shoulder.





