Matthew Rohrer's latest collection explores the space between wakefulness and sleep, that drowsy loosening of consciousness called hypnagogia. Comprised not of dream-poems but poems that strain to hear dreams' faintest messages squeaked through into waking life, The Sky Contains the Plans lays bare an imagination in which the mundane and surreal contort each other into a new kind of primordial reality.
Table of Contents:
Everybody's relation to change in the sack
Then he was thrown out of Espresso Royale
Did you eat your blossoms on time?
It will seem like nothing happened
We probably shouldn't be discussing this
The zipper-upper or whatever –here's yours
This is my challenge to you
Conserve-a-lawyer
They kidnapped Alabama
I wish a fire would destroy that whole neighborhood so they could start over
It's under oath
You don't think there's going to be a world of motion
Slam the word to make it pretty
We waited in his plant now 2 to 2
You're consuming darkness
One navy painting
Where are my other planets?
It's not like I have his death on my foot
You've got a hollow look
The rocking horse said family desire
Never lights as dim as Sara
The canoe is not sitting up by itself
He fell on his ass he might have been captured
What shall I do 42-71?
Yesterday could do a better job of explaining that than I could
The coughing brings me back to level one
If you saw me you'd be swallowed by a yellow bus
So Now I Determine She Was A Selective Victim
It was nice to sleep with him as a young girl
But when you were counting you skipped 6, 7 and 8
Alright smell your finger
I visualized that idea leaving my head in a bathysphere
A toy spaceship called Almond Chicken
My name is Tromas Neebar
Spoken creases
Poetry can be a weapon of war
Brief, almost microscopic attempts made on my life
You look vintage
Pre-linguistic-mystery
As I step into the chamber of our imagined love
Seahorses are awesome
You will notice a faithful block of cheese is present
Hypoallergenic condominium
But that isn't really the threat of nostalgia, is it?
Between whose human rocks I lay
He seems lost to a partisan girl.
It was one of the blooming complaints of my campaign
That seemed voluminous
Try to go away and lie in bed simultaneously
If you're going to be a charming off-the-top-of-your-head guy, then do your work
Building up to it is actually better
I follow art—it goes places and I come with it
I was warned I might be losing her another peasant
They're an empty space whose intrigue is just that
This home is the light
Penetrated into the dream
Feathery wood fiend
Families sharing music with each other
Your dirty little beard is like a runway
You can't have 2 power sources in your car because they would interfere with each other
A mundane hideout
I created their career information for them
I only smoke cigarettes on your rotation
I'll slit your barrel
Dragging a metal thing right to your front door
The best thing she knows about going to banks is where they are
Rediscovering the baby's lecture presentation
If you eat this cookie I won't let you in to paradise.
Author's Note
Afterward
