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Obscene Intimacy

My soldier was found unresponsive restrained
In his cell death being due to blunt force injuries
To lower extremities complicating coronary artery

Disease contusions & abrasions on forehead
Nose head behind ear neck abdomen buttock
Elbow thigh knee foot toe w/ hæmorrhage

On rib area & leg blunt force injuries resulted
In extensive muscle damage muscle necrosis &
Rhabdomyolysis electrolyte disturbances primarily

Hyperkalæmia elevated blood potassium level &
Metabolic acidosis occurs within hours of muscle
Damage massive sodium and water shifts occur re

– sulting in hypovolemic shock & casodilatation
And later acute renal failure the deceased’s un
– derlying coronary artery disease would compromise

Ability to tolerate electrolyte & fluid abnormalities
Underlying malnutrition so it’s likely dehydration
Only exacerbated the effects of muscle damage

Mere bones of desolation now things

  — my love restores.

 

False Communiqué

One civilian detainee was found
Unresponsive with a ligature
Or plastic band around my cock

A bottle ring pops pigeon death
In cell behaviour health unit joint
Task force Guantanamo 2200 hours

When the ligature gets cut I come
Without remorse on the source
Of light his electric body being

Banished to mulch organic comp
– osition capital dividing luminous
Flux a rumour a burden of labour

Having fallen away from the tend
– ency of profit to rise and fall w/
The quality of radiance his cock

The way any man will use my hands
Like vitreous fluid his urine emits
So diffused a glow no needle-like

Beam thru pores of junk no evi
– dence of trauma resuscitation
Efforts begging immediate organ

– isation to turn blood back
To military cargo my skin
Now shares

 — with a tank.


ABOUT THE CONTRIBUTOR

The poems here are taken from Halpern's collection [­­­­­­] (Enitharmon, 2015), a selection from his hugely ambitious writing project involving four collections and three pamphlets published over the last ten years by presses in the USA. See Enitharmon¹s website for details. A founding participant in the Nonsite Collective, Halpern lives in San Francisco and Ypsilanti, Michigan, where he teaches at Eastern Michigan University.

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