The Brooklyn Rail

MAY 2022

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MAY 2022 Issue
Poetry

three


Brown Town Down Frown



Brunette hazel bay umber beige brownish buff chestnut fawn mahogany sepia tan auburn biscuit
brick chocolate coffee dark mousy sorrel tawny toasted brindle brindled bronze burnt sienna
camel caramel dun ginger khaki mushroom russet rust sand cocoa copper coppery fuscous nut
sandy stone amber bister cinnamon dust ecru greige henna kasha nutbrown oatmeal ochre pale
brown puce taupe wheaten toast terracotta chocolate colored cocoa colored coffee colored dark
brown donkey brown nut brown stone colored brownish yellow snuff colored dun colored mud
colored mouse colored brownish grey lightish brown chocolate colored cocoa colored nut brown
café au lait drab dun colored olive leather colored light brown yellowish brown olive brown
yellowish cream straw straw coloured coffee colored sand colored yellow brown yellowish beige
oatmeal colored camel colored sandy color biscuit colored. Beauty brown brown beauty. Epoch
writing from memory writing from experience. Brown vs. Board of Education. A line of dots.
Lascaux. Allegory of the cave. Horses and deer. Great Hall of Bulls. 6,000 figures. Giant Elk.
Animals and human figures and abstract signs. Legumes and stags and cattle and bison. 7
Felines, a bird, a rhinoceros, and a human. Bulls in motion. Red, yellow, black. Red and green.
Nature, wood, soil, human hair, eye color, skin pigmentation. Plainess, rustic, feces, and poverty.
Baking, warmth, wildlife, the autumn, Bruń burnish. Color of chocolate. Color of coffee, color of
tea. Umber brown and black. Empreinte Panel. Bears and cubs. Black cow, deer swimming,
mama bear, crossed buffalo. Shiney brown leather coat. Man with a bird head. Ithyphallic
bullmoose with brown velvet antlers. Bear with erect penis. Trance dancing. River otters. The
sow. History of the world in 100 objects. Mottle horse. Scut tail brown hare. Little brown mice.
Sticks, mountains, dots, lines, rectangular signs: Pumas. Apes hunting success of the past. Like
bison licking an insect bite. Like a bear standing tall. Like a pack of rhinos before a brawl. Like a
wild horse on an island. Swimming reindeer together. Oneness with the mammoth spear thrower.
Mammoth tusk. Rampant hyena. Venus of manure. Sepia from cuttlefish. Lower class barbarians,
Plebeians. Pullati. Those dressed in brown. Umbers dark brown clay. Raw sienna, burnt umber,
dark orange equal brown. Mummy brown. Walnuts a brown dye for wool. Reddish dye for hair.
Chestnut. Rust. Iron Oxide. Beware of black mold! Terracotta. Terracotta. 720 B.C. Still here
after all these years. Leonardo da Vinci sepia from a cuttlefish. Chiaroscuro. Flash of light. Once
when I was in an asylum. I was given a brown paper bag. I poked three holes in it and put it over
my head. Brown bread. Brown sugar. Pardo. Siena in Tuscany. Like seeing my own eye. A brown
eye. An eye that is almost black. Auburn hair. The color of light honey brown, the color of
golden brown, the color of copper, the color of bronze, the color of coffee, the color of dark
chocolate brown, the color of peat on fire, the color of snowshoe hare in the spring, the color of
brown rat. The color of brown bear. The color of ermine. Remember the black belt? Muddy like
the Mississippi. This flood of people flowed north. America’s golden door. The mule has more
rights. Brown and green. Camouflage. Camel. Sahara. Desert. What’s that sound? Brown rat,
tawny owl, Tané. Tan leather. Buff. Light brownish yellow. Ochreous color. Buff leather.
Yellowish tan. Khaki Urdu. Dust covered. Beware of the Brown Revolution. Beware of voting
brown. They laugh now. Brown silk pajamas with swastika. Beware of the Brown House. My
brown blanket. Hugo Boss loves brown. Brown is not always bad. Remember World War II.
Remember the brown bombers. Tuskegee! Tuskegee! Fly! Fly! Fly! Pullman brown porter.
Porter. Save the post office. What can brown do for you? Brown like a berry. Brown like a bag.
Brown like a brown out. Brown like Brownfields. Brown like brown-nose. Brown like brown
study. Brown like gloomy you will not fool me. Endurance, solidarity, grounding, strength:
Earth! Khaki! A sachertorte. Chocolate cake. Vienna awaits. Kufra Oasis: A fissure from space.
Oak barrels age Chianti. Dun colored horse. Donn. Donn. Donn. Amber glistens in the sun
carmel lover. A sepia photograph from the 1890’s. Franciscan monk humility. Decayed organic
matter. Beige. The color of wool. Puceia red brown flea bites. Blood stains King Arthur legends
Sir Gareth. Sir Perymones, “The Puce Knight.” Fuchsia lavender more pink puce glass light.
Taupe mole. Are you brown, or are you grey? Pale Taupe, light taupe, mauve taupe, rose taupe,
sandy taupe, taupe gray, deep taupe, taupe brown, medium taupe. Drab dull light brown. Sheep.
Natural Sheep. Baa. Baa. Baa. Olive drab. Clay soil. Raw sienna. Red brown, 1682. Rosy brown,
1987, Burnt umber, 1650, Hematite. Fe2O3. Wenge legume tree. Chestnut. Smokey Topaz.
Vermillion brown. Desert Sand, 1926, Dark Brown, Black Brown, Beaver, 1705, Orange Brown,
Cocoa Brown, Russet, 1363, Strong Brown. Honorificabilitudinitatibus. Yes, you can! The final
reckoning.









Owl

For Carl



Dawn ancient connection starry night poverty smoking supernatural floating cities jazz brains
angels roofs radiant war publishing odes underwear burning money terror wall busted marijuana
New York paradise nightmares blind cloud mind toward Paterson motionless time cemetery
dawns joyride blinking light tree of Brooklyn chained subways ride Battery brain brilliance sank
floated listening doom hours jumping fire moon yacketayakking memories shocks intellects
recall meat pavement vanished nowhere a of postcards sweats junk furnished around
around railroad broken hearts snow bop angels ecstasy limousines streetlight rain hungry
lonesome jazz sex soup eternity volcanoes lava ash poetry beards shorts sexy weeping
undressing wailed white trembling machinery skeletons detectives crime motorcyclist joy blown
grass parks giggle sob sword loveboys shrew winks sit golden ecstatic beer sweetheart cigarettes
bed floor hall fainting vision consciousness million girls sunrise naked lake stolen hero memory
mountaintops caves lonely petticoat solipsisms dreams basements offices night blood blue
floodlight crowned in oblivion lamb crab the rivers wept pushcarts music boxes bridge rose up
flame orange scribbled rocking rolling incantations yellow stanzas gibberish lung tortillas pure
vegetable trucks egg cast clocks cut wrists force antique stores cried burned innocent
blasts verse clatter iron fashion the mustard gas editors run down soup beer fell window jazz
whiskey toilet moans ears blast colossal whistles highways journey jazz hours vision vision vision
eternity praying salvation soul jail for charm hearts sang blues Buddha locomotive grave
trials left potato salad granite madhouse heads harlequin concrete void protest blood tears fingers
halls echoes soul midnight love dream a nightmare bodies heavy moon book window door
telephone room down yellow rose imaginary nothing Carl animal icy flash vibrating gaps
trapped soul joined dash jumping sensation measure before shaking soul rhythm unknown down
time death rose jazz shadow love saxophone cry radio heart butchered years.









Something Out of Nothing



Pondering for too long. Thinking self oblivion out of nothing universal truth.
Stole P, P, F. What matters in space: Place existence.

Contributor

Ama Birch

Ama Birch is releasing a spoken word album called Fresh Pond Road on September 21, 2023.

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The Brooklyn Rail

MAY 2022

All Issues