and two more poems

By ELIOT CARDINAUX
with drawings by Sean Ali.

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Long Live the King

At the end of my biography
the goats were yelling

up a wholesome pitch
the fever stirring across the board
on which the pieces had begun to move

when in droves the goats left

Here I give this witness
majesty

the whispers between sheaves
daily & daily
becoming more human

louder & louder
at the end of history

Of this the goats were dreaming

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In Partibus Infidelium

inscribing how many countless years
on the underground air

the copyrighted data of our infinite
wayward music

how much dead-end light
poured in through the cracked door

we crossed paths in the ether
sighted prey

Lascaux was painted for those
whose fire kept you away

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Admission

The curtain wavers
at the dawn light

I’ll only write
what needs
forgetting

The weight of a ring no longer there
on my finger

That’s enough

Still wary of the plughole
I hear myself clamoring for light
between you & yourself in the wall

♦

ELIOT CARDINAUX is a poet, pianist, and composer, among other habits. Working at the intersection of improvised music and experimental lyric poetry, his work could easily be described as oblique devotion. He is the founder of The Bodily Press, through which he releases poetry chapbooks, CDs, LPs, and various collaborations with visual artists, including Jeff Lipsky, Zoe Christiansen, Peter Knapp, Katya Popova, and Mr. Sean Ali himself. He performs and records along the East Coast and in Europe, most notably and recently with the international improvising ensemble Our Hearts as Thieves, in trio with Will McEvoy and Max Goldman, and in duo with Gary Fieldman. His recent chapbooks include Split World, and a triptych comprising The Margins Weep Slow Roses, Caprice, and Narratives of the Strata. His recent albums include Pavane, Out of Our Systems, and What the Wildflower Witnessed (Our Hearts as Thieves).

He has been friends with Sean Ali for over 20 years.

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