Pachinko Mouth, First Turn

Michael Gushue

Excerpted from Pachinko Mouth, Anomalous Press Chapbook Contest Notable

click here to read about the full project

Hey! Dou shiteru? And also Aloha. Here I am,
                                            convincing you.
              And yes, I can be a gamble.
                        So what do you like? Fun?
                                                                                Sazo!
                Me, maybe a machine fond of amusement and subtraction.
                                                                                A spray of fuchsia,
                                                                   a fan of lime green rays,
                                                       strobes of electric blue.

                In my display,              
foil and garnish are important resources:                                    Voila!

                                                                                Also, I am attached.

                        But mostly I am gravity,

    pinballish,     viscera of cogs,               levers,                      pistons,
            counterweights,   switches,          induction coils,
    subroutines,     anything that vibrates,      anything that hopes
                          to vibrate someone else.                                            
                                                                                                   Whoa.

Alas,
             though,
                                    I
                                                 am
                                                           utterly
                                                                       sans
             flippers,
             that is to say,

             armature,
             which is to say,
 
             control,                                               
             which leads to

             uncertainty.

Thus I have come to rely on chance.                  Or something like that.

Okay, the floor is open. Ganbatte!


Michael Gushue runs the micro-press Beothuk Books and is co-founder of Poetry Mutual/Vrzhu Press. His work has appeared online and in print. His chapbooks are “Gathering Down Women,” from Pudding House Press, “Conrad” from Souvenir Spoon Books, and “Pachinko Mouth,” forthcoming from Plan B Press. He lives in the Brookland neighborhood of Washington, DC.