Adam Stutz

Some Baleful Erstwhile

Etiquette for the Comments Section

Ode to an Idle Guitar

Etiquette for the Comments Section

Steps for a Safe Disassembly

This side up—pull your good feathers
from burlap sacks
of unanswered letters.
Crack a shell on a uniform +
build a new domestic
indoctrination.
Let the spoon rest on the lids
of the eyes at rest.
Do not boil over.
This side down—now a diatribe for
the tight wires
of misgivings by phone.
Via diction/via rule
/via road/via blood
/via spit/via love.
Smooth the sheets
of the incandescent
wet streets
of your bed w/ a trowel.
Cook your argument
for three-minutes behind
the epiglottis—until the eyes
are sufficiently crossed.
This side up—fold the arms
of all of your dress shirts
diagonally along the banks of
an empty river.
Tilt the head forty-five degress
until you run
parallel w/ the rain.
There are no sides—
just space—
Play the angel in waiting.

Adam Stutz is the the co-curator of the Non-Standard Lit Reading Series with Mark Wallace and Jeanine Webb. His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Equalizer: Second Series, White Stag, The Cultural Society, A Sharp Piece of Awesome, Prelude, Be About It, Deluge, Dum Dum Zine, The Pinch, and Where is the River. He is the author of the chapbook Transcript (Cooper Dillon Books, 2017) and The Scales (White Stag Publishing, 2018). He currently resides in San Diego, CA.