LANCE PHILLIPS

Experience used to be called the Soul
    
       —rachis  was it  barbule  Living wing
       Shudder groin  shudder her head   just after




       —thing-events do not experience
       —isolates clementine  slow twitch lip  ovoid moon
       peculiarly a social context





       —that attraction & repulsion are matter  blueberries   Thumb pressed 
       into phallic head convolutes this point at junebug's wing 
                     ~
       —such a thing as world images
       —arms anchor over  around thighs   Pompey against Caesar  Brutus 
       against Octavius and Antony  Antony
       against Octavius   Flits that fly against the glass












       —enormity  the room and things  cocked his head against inner thigh
       buttocks  her back arched as it was easily   Can think inferno
       aloe
       —old rose   Aggression



       —days in those leaves
       —transfiguring his body remains forethought
       —extending her house around her



       —urine  earth  the narcissus   Is it simply aggression which makes the 
       text thinking   
       —The social question



       —then you are known  dove itself crushed in cat jaws
       —one's own self  nothing here is the dove is 
                     ~
       














       —spittle domes on his palm nearest the thumb   Animality   Its green
       brain  rabbit still  entire in the grass



       —sun itself  a suitor   That it began thus  white  opal  surrounding
       crossing her mouth  his retina   Elemental sex  wind by which
       each body vibrates  dissents into wet hand  mouth  genitals







       One desires images contra to bodies?
       —it is both my shoulder and the wren inside my shoulder
       we have exchanged the attribute  pleasure
              ~
       Pure idea? vs. any durable idea of the body
       —hair itself over eye  cheek  readily an action
       set eye there for inner vision


       —the general in the leaves cups wind against my neck
       again my neck  aberrant


       —very red  through the trees  shoulder girdle  sun
       —slowed into death vs. flat rectangle oak's trunk







       —a whelp  then a spider on its legs
       Is transformation sequential strands for hairs
       or reversal moves   he  it
       Artificiality over against spider's writing
       leg tip  it moves paradise
              ~
       —slopes muscle from neck to her shoulder
       converges   The dewdrop
       raises an eye for limb of the body



















       —raining
       —in each shoulder an agriope  there
       The mint air
          Transference vs. appearance  one body staged within another
       through Will itself
       —raining glistens



       —limb within the iris for limb within the rain water
       honest pearls
       There is an emphasis on pride



       —I am not willing the movement  squandered is a judgment about
       the movement   Hand moves   up tongue curves  down it retreats
       There is a mist about the moon as if for balance





       —it's Neptune or Poseidon  thimble of ocean  on the cards' backs
       —his arms move  simultaneously  for balance












       —damage  the talk around Castor & Pollux
       So far the sun remains memory
       One hooks the fingers in such a way, Political structure


       —versus each hand inconceivable nose
       for them a good Soul
       —box


       —under the moon  Venus
       Confabulation the glass and people
       They are joint  joined
       One destroys imagination with building or field or passenger jet
              ~
       One adopts a certain procedure so that desire remains
       The sun back to being a horror  Second sun there among
       buildings  heat shrugs their shoulders



















       Does one vilify method
       —lies still   Marrowy  pearly  something overfilling my ear
       Know but cannot feel it moving  finger  Orion


       —I must tell you afraid  swallow's egg  door jamb
       —tell the limits of space





       —each a bridge their bodies kinder  extreme
       heels vs. hands cast as souls of the dead



       Templum:  the house is not an object
       Tempus:  face  aspidistra
       —irides dull from joy into resignation

















       —skin hill
       —if Nature had wanted a detail
       an argument

       —writing by her face  here soft   6:30 when its pallor  co-agent with place
       its desire origins that smile at time for that smile
       —skin hill




       The sky directly natural
       in Memory a detail of lip  immolation
       Nomadic  now  at head of the body
       sedentary at limbs



       —can the "good" come in from the outside
              I intend hurt and intention leaves
       the toad happily



Lance Phillips's recent work has appeared in or is forthcoming from Fence, Aufgabe, The Gig, Slope, Gut Cult, Chimera Review and the mini mag. His first book, Corpus Socius, was brought out by Ahsahta press in May 2002 and his second, Cur aliquid vidi, is due December 2004 from the same. He lives in Charlotte, NC with his wife, son and daughter where he edits the interview blog Here Comes Everybody.