Two Poems by Angelo Maneage

March 2021

House river ocean

what a massage this one was my lover said       I just signed up

to take concrete classes      which is dangerous because of the person

being a swimmer yeah I remember and with big feet too      I was thinking of

solid onyx      on my neck there were hand marks I thought

peculiar and I know what it does I noticed dark smoke

coming from the water that was in the ocean

it was a site to see there were so many noises      backing up

entire lots yellow and orange backing      up looked heavy

big wheels to move through mud     when they lifted a building out of the water

with hundreds of people in it      being drained they were bouncing

around in the balls      more people without faces       squirming you

could hear them say we got a lot here and it lifted more out.

embryo water was thick milk smoke without minerals    the water has 

figures spinning on the red or orange balls where beams lined up

twirling to be a perfect line every revolution or so

when all of the beams moved everybody could start to cross themselves

over from the side they were on       it didn’t matter which one it was     

from or to I could not remember for the life of me what it was but a person

with a long arm doing what their profession is is drowning

pulling weights out of the hole and pushed back with tinge I know I know

it was something more lactic sounding like   a mechanical whirr like the burn of a mouth roof

Rat man tunnel theory

after Dara Wier

See rat men from the tunnel we emerged from

with dirt on our clothes     our fresh printed shirts held up

from pointed projections inside ourselves. Rat man rips

me off a stuck out stick. I live as a draped drop of shimmers.

Water rested in the bottom arc

of the cylinder. Check. You are reflected.

That guy that shoots the guy who falls out of a window onto the night cement.

Am I awake. I must be      I am in pain     

when I ask a question. I’m not sure if I am asking

to learn. I must be doing it to feel better

about the daytime.        I take note of the exact dial the arc is in

light conjunct to the sky water. I did not tell anybody

when it was recorded because I thought it would be better

to get the angles right. Looking toward a big dot sky,   

moving over one another, we move     through oil lining pipe

walls difficult to sleep in. Cool drips underground, I’ll give you that.

It is a miracle the rat man is not evil. He hisses. I do think that

what they do is very evil. It’s even difficult to sleep in the water

without pruning.      We picked the ground up with our backs,

beating tunnel soaked, in the dark.