Sudden Prose Reprints: "Outside the Frame" by Erika Meitner

Outside the Frame

is a brand new $115 million dollar high school with the same name as the abandoned one outside the frame are two men biking at midnight down John R street with red lights blinking off their cycles like morse code it’s not too dangerous outside the frame are the lines around Michigan Avenue for Slows Bar B Q outside the frame are the larger contexts for these shots the what’s next  and  what’s next to the slots   of abandoned tagged houses  and houses that went so long ago that only field is left not even foundations those have grown over with prairie grass did you see the pheasants outside the frame is a functioning farm  an urban garden where one horse neighs in the heat nuzzles the dirt outside the frame stands a blue sign with two yellow suns and Hope Takes Root outside the frame is the Obama gas station at the intersection of Plymouth and Wyoming with rebranded awnings & signs & pumps and outside the frame the owner says I have my dream and my dream came true outside the frame is the possibility to do whatever the hell you want no one cares what we do here outside the frame is the blues jam at the corner of Frederick and St. Aubin so bring your lawn chairs to the abandoned lot where they pass the hat for the mowing porta-potties electric generator to run the amps because outside the frame sometimes there’s just nobody around to say you can’t 

Erika Meitner

Copia (BOA Editions, 2014)

Learn more about poet Erika Meitner and her work here on her website. 

 

Sudden Prose Reprints: "Terra Nullius" by Erika Meitner

After three months of no posts in the Sudden Prose Reprints series, I'm glad to share this prose poem by Erika Meitner, who will be reading at Burdall's Yard in Bath as part of the Bath Spa University Stand Up Poetry Series. The event will be on Thursday, 30 April at 8 p.m., and Erika will be reading with poet Fiona Benson.

Terra Nullius

When we were done, all the buses had stopped running. When we were done, the moon was painted large and low-slung on the horizon.  We sat like that a long time, listening to each other exhale blue plumes of smoke which tucked themselves through checkered screens.  It was near-morning and we were in our underwear.  It was near-dark and we were in our underwear, my legs draped across his lap.  Gentle curvature of smoke—our bodies were looted, were broke.  Outside, invisible wires held up water towers and busted street lamps.  The sides of semis turned the highway to gold threads.  We had hallelujah billboards.  We had industrial rust.  He put his finger to my lips and I became the wreckage so we could find our way back.  We sat like that a long time.

Erika Meitner

Copia (BOA Editions, 2014)

You can buy Copia (currently for £10.38) from Book Depository here.