Daniel Gutstein

Swing It

One train pushes second train.
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Brother pushes brother in a wheelchair.
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Destination: the doors of a hospital.
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Destination: Dachau.
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Arbeit macht Dumme.
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The merchantman sunk by Nazi torpedo.
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Cousin Foxie drowned in the North Atlantic.
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Consider the size of the fight.
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Swing it.

2)

People issuing.
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People issuing like breath from a dead train.
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A ventilator inflating the brother’s lungs.
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Walkers and tunnels.
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A city in the brights.
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Window is: Look-through to a third star.
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Window is: Potential for stop-time.
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Swing in / river / swing out.
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Arbeit macht Dumme.

3)

Opposite middle-century ballgame glory.
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Opposite top-hat chimney and remanufacture.
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Swing it.
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The pall presages a warm day.
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Work makes Butterbrot.
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Work makes greasy waxpaper.
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A locomotive angers in the shade of a switchyard.
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The space a body will no longer occupy.
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The number of windows in Baltimore.

 

 

Daniel Gutstein is the author of two collections, Bloodcoal & Honey (Washington Writers Publishing House, 2011), and non/fiction (Edge Books, 2010). His writing has appeared in Ploughshares, Prairie Schooner, American Scholar, the Penguin Book of the Sonnet, and Best American Poetry. He is co-director of a forthcoming documentary film on the standard American tune, "Li'l Liza Jane," and is a lyricist and vocalist for the punk-jazz band, Joy on Fire. To read more by this author, see the Winter 2004 issue, the Evolving City issue, his profile of Dudley Randall for the Memorial Issue, and his interview with Rod Smith for the Profiles Issue.