Author: Cody Swann

8/20/13 8:39am – 8/20/13 9:07am

“Cody S’Round”
(opposite beds)

jason bateman stars as the typical warm-hearted good guy with his usual
brand of dry unknowingly aloof sense of humor.
in a giant school yard it is announced that any kid who is a bully, cheats on tests,
tattletales, disrespects their parents, etc. have all been visibly  categorized
and charged with further imprisonment.
chaos ensues at the hearing of this.
but still there are a good chunk of kids not singled-out.
until it is announced all best friends of those found guilty are here-by guilty by association.
best friend-labeled charges descend.
somehow more chaos ensues.
kids run amok now labeled and lawless as security personnel spew out from far corners
upon the kids now made-easily identifiable.
a narrators voice can be heard.
“with his kids at risk he’s up for the task:
he’s a normal dad who was picking up his kids from school early and accidentally got
locked in unbeknownst to the  faculty, no he’s a caring vice principal who was left out of the
plan by no accident who is at the top with a long way to the bottom of things, no no he could
be the adult actor who plays a child, but who is made funny for obviously not resembling a
child to us, who in the movie plays an undercover cop already aware of what’s going down
and feeds us the details as we stare in awe of his secret agent-like preciseness and tact,
but either way he’s ‘Cody S’Round'”.
my ears interpret this as my name, cody swann, but it was in fact
“Cody S’Round” when heard conveniently repeated by the narrator.
intermission

8/19/13 12:15am – 9/12/13 12:09pm

playing telephone with yourself iii

but can you trust that memory
that’s going now on twenty-three?
over the years your drowning cries
seem from second sets of ears and eyes

over those years could it have blend
with the second time it happened?
watching from above out of body
with someone else’s memory

playing telephone with yourself
taking tours of the unsure self
at the bottom floating was it you
at the age of terrible two’s?

8/19/13 12:15am – 8/21/13 1:39am

playing telephone with yourself
(twenty-three year old memory)
(memorable past drowning occasions)

the twenty-three year old memory of near-drowning
could actually be the product of playing telephone with
yourself over the years.
even your visuals seem to be from some second set of eyes.
your watching yourself drown through an eye witnesses
account that’s mixed with more memorable past drowning occasions.

8/16/13 3:05am – 8/20/13 3:36am

thinking about blinking III
(pinning a number to pain)

does it hurt?
only every time i blink
from one to ten?
between four and five i think

you were doing what?
trying to put out an eye
how did that end for you?
with a face that will not dry

where was safety if not first?
off making an excuse
did you think they’d just grow back?
i can’t see what’s their use

what am i looking for?
what i can’t seem to get rid
can you be so sure
there is a lash beneath your lid?

8/15/13 11:28am – 8/15/13 12:18pm

treated to soft serve

inside of a museum soft serve ice cream on a cone is offered,
but only allowed within the confines of a sanctioned area of the exhibit.
the enclosed area is marked off by four large strips of beige tape that make up a square.
guests are only required to stay within the square for as long as it takes them to finish their cone.
eating the soft serve ice cream outside of the sanctioned area is strictly prohibited
and sternly enforced by guards who dawn either all white fifties style ice cream man outfits
or candy-striped uniforms.
the candy-coated guards have it under strict orders to remove any violators from the soft serve station
to a smaller taped square in the next room labeled “jail” where prisoners are subjected to
being treated to soft serve on respectively smaller, thimble-sized cones.
the “jail” square is made up almost entirely by a desk and chair that faces a transparent safety glass wall
on one of the four sides.
visitations with the outside world are offered to prisoners by way of telephones set up on
both sides of the glass wall.
prisoners serve out the remainder of their sentence by finishing their thimble cone.
intermission.

8/9/13 10:48pm – 8/16/13 1:16am

the dog that bites into chocolate
(the dehydrated daughter)
(solving awkward)

if you give it long enough
any hand will find a pocket
wanting to be out of sight
an eye jumping from a socket
but do not feel sorry for
the dog that bites into chocolate

she says anywhere else would do
with a well-timed sip of water
you wouldn’t think so but all’s said
in the second that it bought her
mechanisms of defense
quench the dehydrated daughter

if you gave it long enough
any hand would find a pocket
you must not feel sorry for
the dog that bites into chocolate

8/7/13 12:39pm – 8/7/13 3:47pm

maternity ward with the leaking faucet
(the closest you can come to enjoying yourself)

it just goes to show how fragile your state of being really is.
you do not allow you to catch yourself after slight missteps.
you let the crack in the lens take focus over the picture ready
to be taken in front of you.
you are quick to throw out the maternity ward with the leaking faucet.
you claim to want to lose this day, but if it were lost you’d double your
efforts tomorrow in an attempt to make up for lost time.
and worse you are fully aware.

8/2/13 11:46am – 8/9/13 11:43am

that makes ten

I
on the one hand

one finger is meant to wear a ring
that says over time you’ll be smothered
one finger is meant to promise things
by wrapping one around another

one finger is meant for keeping track
of who you are and what you do
one finger has three staring you back
though it meant to point away from you

one finger is meant to sign a phrase
that is much easier flipped than said
with it makes five each with their own ways
on the other hand there’s five ahead

III
on the other hand

then there is one meant to help feeling
your way around while in the dark
there is one meant to touch the ceiling
after a growth spurt helps make this mark

there’s one that is better at bending
and because so named double-jointed
there’s one that keeps under its ending
bits of earth from wherever pointed

there is one meant to poke your own eye
to let tears separate boys from men
and as you age learn again to cry
for the much worse ways you could make ten

7/13/13 12:18pm – 7/23/13 10:56pm

sam, all the same

you’re the sister i never had
you were to come after my brother
you almost took my dad
when you almost took my mother

she’d said enough after my brother
and didn’t leave it for chance to decide
then said she’d like to have another
if they could get her tubes untied

and so the well was then undried
and water began again to flow
and it wasn’t long after they tried
before she began again to show

her cheeks gave off a familiar glow
that shared the news with just a shine
but you never got where you’d need to grow
and shared with more than just a sign

hours before she was feeling fine
our day like her wasn’t far along
hours later they were sewing the line
where internally she went wrong

with her was where i did belong
but dad took me out to the ballgame
on a sand diamond i tried to be strong
for a sister i’d learn never became

sam, all the same
you never were, but had a name
sam, all the same
you never were, but got the blame

7/12/13 12:20pm – 7/17/13 8:50pm

when the hearing goes
(lesser four)

when the hearing goes where does it go?
to the next body waiting in line?
much like a soul i think it will flow
through the next body when done with mine

wherever it goes i hope it knows
it won’t be my choice to do without
when the ear drums blow it’s what i’ll owe
for what went in to what i’m about

what good is hello if turned down low
to the man who knew sound as much more?
i’d trade my nose or any of those
senses that make up the lesser four

why it comes to go i’ll never know
so i hold on for dear life to mine
whether leaving slow or ear drums blow
to the next body waiting in line