An erasure of Chapter 69 of Moby-Dick
The body
flashes Slowly
insatiate rapacious
floats further and further
floats murderous
for hours and hours
pleasant joyous
death floats infinite
mocking mourning
life needed it
this desecrated body
nevertheless floating
straightaway the corpse
with trembling fingers
leaping over a vacuum
There’s your law
there’s your orthodoxy!
Thus the great terror
death a world
you my friend?
There ghosts them.
Troy Kehm-Goins is a Puyallup poet and artist who has been published in WRIST, Post Defiance, Read Write Poem, and Les Sar’zine. His work is a mixture of the everyday and the mythological, drawing upon diverse influences and inspirations. He has also self-published four poetry chapbooks, the most recent of which is Black Psalms. He resides online at Troy’s Work Table (www.troysworktable.blogspot.com) where he explores books, art, beer, and wandering.
