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from http://blog.bestamericanpoetry.com/the_best_american_poetry/2010/10/ben-and-amy-read-chapbooks-.html

November 01, 2010
Ben and Amy Read Chapbooks

Here are some chapbooks we like. Maybe this will make you read them.

The End of Waste and The Harrowing Halychyna by Curtis Jensen

Self-published. See curtisinterruptus.blogspot.com.



Poems: Welcome to the greatest “zine” moments of the year. The typos do not detract from the enjoyment of this chapbook. Obsessive editing can be really annoying anyway. Sandbox in Hell V1.2 is a great poem; coupled with the visuals of cow/boar/horse/deer skulls creates a "bad-ass" feeling.

Construction: Feels like a skate/punk/straight-edge/vegan recipe zine your little brother photocopied at Kinkos back in high school. Probably goes well with Black Flag or Gorilla Biscuits. Deer skulls a-plenty.

SANDBOX IN HELL VI.2

You are Sisyphus,

Not pushing the rock, but in the sandbox.
Really not many likenesses except that
Whatpowers may be have doomed you here,
From now until the rest of whatever.

The trick is that there’s nothing under
This sandbox, nothing but a way out
Six inches beneath your big dumb feet,
Nothing but a change of scenery.

You’ve geen given a flat-nosed shovel.
You’re on your hands, you’re on your knees.
You’ve choked way up the shovel-handle:
You could cut through the ceiling below.

Maintaining the level sand around you,
You are diligent in senseless effort;
You motor your perpetual doom;
You are in this eternity, youre in it
On your hands and on your knees;
You bring about your own impulsion,
You’re in the sandbox with yourself
Till all the lights at last go out,
Til maybe even after that.

Whether your sandbox surface lays plumb
Has no bearing on your place in torment.
You being you, you’re there with yourself.